


You're My Destiny

by randowriter



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: 2YEON - Freeform, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, F/F, jihyoxdaniel, michaeng, momoxheechul, princessau, saida
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:27:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24976087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randowriter/pseuds/randowriter
Summary: This is my first fic so please be nice. Not enough people were writing about princess sana so here we are.Dahyun never thought that having a part time job at a pastry shop would lead to her helping cater one of the royal families parties, or lead to some weird girl cornering her. At least its over...right?
Relationships: Kim Dahyun/Minatozaki Sana
Comments: 45
Kudos: 185





	1. chapter 1

It’s not often someone finds themselves in a giant castle, being stared at by thousands, and walking to the throne on the arm of a gorgeous individual. But to explain how we got there, we’ll have to backtrack a bit. 

* * * * *

Dahyun stretches in her chair and uncrosses her legs as she gets up. Yawning as she walks along the cold wooden floor. She peeks out the curtains in the kitchen, seeing a street full of people visiting shops and eating at restaurants. It’s around dusk, when people go out to enjoy themselves, so all the businesses in the area get busy. If she wasn’t busy studying for this exam she’d be sitting on the kitchen counter and people watching. She smiles and grabs a hot chocolate packet from one of the cabinets, coffee is too bitter for her, and stirs it into a mug of hot water. She rubs her eyes as she stirs and looks around the apartment. 

The living room area is a mess, with pillows and board games thrown about during the play fight she had with Chaeyoung and Tzuyu last night. She makes a mental note to clean up after studying for another hour. She sits back down at her desk, staring at the mess of papers, books, and pens. She turns the lamp back on and opens the chemistry textbook while flipping through her stack of notes. A loud buzzing breaks the silence and she jumps in her seat. 

“Hello?” She answers the call.

“Dahyun, we need you to come into work today. We have a catering job in about an hour and Chaeyoung just cancelled.” Her boss says. “I know you’re prepping for your tests but this job is really important for the shop, can you make it?”

She looks at the calendar, the dates circled in red haunt her. Then she looks at the alarm clock on the shelf above her bed, “Give me about 15 minutes and I'll be there.” 

“Thanks. You're a lifesaver.” They hang up the call and Dahyun sighs as she puts the phone down.

She closes her notes and textbook, “You’ll have to torture me later, i still need this job.” She gets dressed in the shop's uniform. She’s lucky the shop she works at doesn’t require females to wear a skirt or whatever, because they’re inconvenient to move around in. The only annoying part about the uniform is that she had to ask her dad how to do a tie. She grumbles while looking into the bathroom mirror as she adjusts the knot and puts on the vest. She thinks about taking the car there but remembers its a catering job and the pastry shop is only a ten minute walk. 

Tzuyu, a friend from college, calls her as she shuts the door to her apartment. Dahyun starts walking down the busy street, waving and bowing her head at the owners of the shops she passses. 

“Hey Tzuyu, what’s up?” She can hear someone whining in the background. “Is that Chaeyoung?” The owner of her favorite restaurant asks if she’ll be coming around to eat later but she laughs and says no, she has to work. “She didn't text me back, is she okay?”

Tzuyu sighs on the other line. “She’ll be fine. We were going to go study at the shop before she had to work so we met up at her place, but when i got here she was burning up and clearly dizzy. I think it's a cold.” She hears Chaeyoung in the back saying “I'm not sick!” and Tzuyu replying, “Shut up and stop trying to get out of bed or I’ll duct tape you to it!”

Dahyun laughs softly as she hears the two bickering, “Tzuyu, make sure she's drinking water and give her something bland to eat later if she's feeling better. She probably overworked herself studying for exams. I’ll stop by after work to check on you two.” She puts a hand up as she crosses the street so she doesn’t get hit.

“Oh? Are you working today? I thought you asked for the day off so you could study?”

“I did, but the boss asked me to cover for Chaeng. Apparently this catering job is really important or something. Oh, I'm in front of the shop now. I'll call you when I'm on my way okay? Bye Tzuyu, good luck with Chaeyoung!” 

She hangs up the call as she opens the door to the shop, smiling at the customers eating on the patio, and is hit with the smell of fresh bread. There’s only a few customers sitting at the tables and typing away on laptops. They mostly get college students like herself looking for a quiet place to study. It’s why you can always hear relaxing music on. She waved at Jihyo and walked behind the counter into the break room to lock up her phone and purse. 

“Are you covering for Chaeyoung?” Jihyo asked as she walked in, putting away a deck of cards that had been scattered across the table. When Dahyun looked at her questioningly she shrugged and said “solitaire.”

“Yeah, she’s sick apparently. Tzuyu is taking care of her right now. Are you going to the catering event too?” Dahyun asked while re-tying her dress shoes. 

She’d wanted to wear heels but the event sounded like it might require a lot of walking and she didn’t want to get a blister. Plus it’s not like she was going to be catering anywhere fancy or anything. It was probably some sort of large family get together or a business meeting. 

“No, thank god. I could not deal with having all those nobles judge me for working at a pastry shop.” Jihyo walked over to Dahyun and opened her locker, “I’m actually about to get off work. The shop is closing early tonight so the boss can just focus on the event.” 

Nobles? Dahyun stops typing her shoes while her brain works at full speed, panicking.

“Did you say nobles? Is it a dukes house or something?” Dahyun calms herself down by taking a deep breath. There’s no way she’s meeting the royal family, it’s probably some lesser noble hosting a snobby party. 

“Has the boss not told you yet?” Jihyo closes her locker and turns to Dahyun with a questioning look. “The event we’re helping cater is at the castle.”

She should’ve worn her heels.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So i managed to write this pretty quick and chap 3 should come out pretty quickly too but after that updates might be a bit slower. Let me know if the chapters are too short as well, I'm trying to cut off in cliffhanger places but i want to make sure the readers are enjoying the story. 
> 
> Leave comments if you have any! <3

Dahyun did not want to be here. She had sweaty hands and kept trying to smoothen out the wrinkles in her shirt. Except her hands were sweaty and weren't helping to smoothen anything out. Everytime she had to refill a pastry station, her hands would shake so much, she was sure she was going to drop everything. It didn’t help that her boss was off trying to make connections, and her co-worker disappeared when they got here and had been nowhere to be seen since. 

It was so intimidating here, a large ballroom with at least three fancy chandeliers. She was sure that the kingdom's whole population could fit in here. And that was a lot of people. Everything was pretty much decorated purple and gold, and the floor was made of marble that shined so expensively that Dahyun was sure that if she scuffed it she’d have to pay as much as she was worth. Which is why when she wasn’t refilling the pastry area she was up against the wall, people-watching. She was pretty sure she could see the thrones from here, though all of the food was in the back as far from them as possible. 

While she was stretching her neck trying to see if she could see any of the royals in the crowd, or by the thrones, someone walked right up to her. She blinked for a second because this was clearly a guest. He had a fancy purple suit on and everything, he seemed to be drunk because he was unbalanced and couldn't stand still. 

“Can I help you, sir?” She moved past him to the side so he couldn’t corner her against the wall. She didn’t like feeling trapped. 

He didn’t say anything at first but held out his empty glass towards her. She noticed he had black gloves on, why would he wear gloves? Were other people wearing gloves as well? Was it a noble thing? She wanted to check but the man was still in front of her not saying anything.

“Sir, if you’re looking for a refill then the bar is that way.” She pointed to a bar situated up against the wall in the middle of the room. That was where most of the richer guests were hanging out, so Dahyun wasn’t as panicked as she thought she would be. Since they clearly had a thing against eating publicly. 

The man grumbled and pushed the glass into her hand. “Help is help. They have the scotch I want in the kitchen, go get it for me.” His breath reeked of alcohol and she wondered how much he’d had to drink already.

Dahyun was mad but she couldn’t do anything because she didn’t want to mess up this job for her boss. “Sir, I'm not authorized to give anyone alcohol. You’ll have to go to the bar.” She wished he would just leave her alone.

“Oh! So the help here is useless.” He was starting to make a scene and now Dahyum didn’t know what to do. He was waving his drink around and seemed mad. She was getting nervous, so many people were staring at them now. 

She started tugging on the cuff of her sleeve. “Sir. Sir please calm down. I can get you another-” Suddenly another woman, in the uniform of one of the permanent staff came over. She was beautiful with long black hair and a fierce gaze. 

“Making a scene again huh? Don’t frighten the poor thing, she’s clearly not staff. Give me the glass and I’ll get you another drink.” He seemed embarrassed at her scolding him but he handed over the glass and walked away. 

Dahyun bowed at her. “I’m sorry you had to come over here. I should’ve handled it better.” The woman laughed.

“Don’t mention it, he’s a frequent complainer so we always keep an eye on him. My name’s Irene. Now come along dear.” She started walking away towards the kitchens.

“Huh?” Dahyun looked back at the pastry table, it seemed to be full for right now but she didn’t want to leave it unattended for too long. Plus she still didn’t know where her co-worker was. 

They walked through a wooden door and down a hallway that felt like something from centuries ago. It was dusty and made out of stone. Dahyun managed to squeak out her name when the woman, Irene, asked it. When they made it to the kitchens she was surprised to find it was as modern as the ballroom, with marble countertop and steel appliances. When she looked at Irene questiongly the woman just put a finger to her lips in a shushing motion. 

“I’m assuming this slack off is yours?” Irene pointed at her co-worker who was currently taste testing what looked like a soup of sorts while seated at the only table in the room, shoved in the corner. He didn’t hear them because he kept eating. “Boy!” She smacked his shoulder,”I’m talking to you.” 

He looked up with a red face, and when he saw Dahyun his eyes went wide. She stood there awkwardly but not as much as she was in the ballroom. He bowed and ran out of a different door saying Dahyun could take a break and he’d watch the table.

Irene sat down at the table and gestured for Dahyun to sit in the other seat. She was going to thank her but Irene started talking instead. 

“He has been here all night ‘taste testing’ the chefs dishes. I went out looking for a similar uniform to see where he was from. I was lucky to find you at the right time, and clearly you need a break if it was just you out there. Those nobles can be a handful.”

Dahyun had many things to say in response: I’m sorry for my coworker, thank you for helping me, is my boss going to get in trouble, did we just take a secret passage here, are you telling me I'm allowed to stay here for a little bit, etc. But she suddenly realized the most important one now that she was sitting down. 

“Umm, if you don’t mind, could you tell me where the bathrooms are?” Dahyun's cheeks were tinged pink at this being the first thing she really said to the woman. 

“Of course, go left once you leave then at the second hallway turn right, from there it's another left at the first hallway, and the bathroom is the third door on the left. There should be a sign on the door.” The woman pointed at the door her co-worker had just used. Dahyun gave a small bow and left, repeating the directions to herself under her breath.

* * * * *

Oh, Dahyun thought after leaving the bathroom and walking in the direction of what she thought was the kitchen. “I’m lost.” She whispered to no one but herself. While she walked down the hallways she tried to look for some sort of marker but all of the doors were the same fancy wooden style, and the hallways had the same purple and gold rugs on them, so now she was lost. The only thing that was different were the people in the paintings along the walls. As Dahyun stopped to take a closer look at one she heard something.

A footstep or two and then silence. She brushed it off and kept walking, except now she was hyper aware that someone was walking with her. Maybe it was someone else who got lost? If she turned a corner and they followed then she would start getting concerned. So at the next corner, she turned down a hallway that looked like any other hallway and walked at least three doors down before stopping to look at a painting of a very beautiful woman. She made sure to look deep in thought by having her hand on her chin, but was putting all her attention on listening. 

At first she didn’t hear anything, and it was like the person had stopped walking altogether, but then she heard it. The light sound of a shoe on carpet, it was so soft but so close. They must be by the first door in this hallway. 

Suddenly Dahyun was scared, why was this person trying to quietly follow her? She put a hand in her pocket and tried to cooly walk down the rest of the hallway, very aware that this person was trying to follow her without her noticing. When she turned right she caught a glimpse of the person but could only see that they were taller than her as she was walking so quickly. She sped up into a sprint as she turned the next corner but had to stop in her tracks. She had found a dead end, and could hear the person speeding up to catch up to her. 

Dahyun did not like feeling trapped, so she very quickly tried the door closest to her and, when it opened, she closed it behind her as silently as possible. Hoping they wouldn’t find her and she could just look for a way back without getting followed once they left. She heard the steps getting closer and quickly looked around the room for a hiding spot, but instead she was taken aback by how fancy the room was. It was at least twice the size of her apartment. A huge tv was hung on the wall in front of a couch that could probably fit ten people. There's a door next to her that definitely leads to a huge and luxurious bathroom. As she walks forward she sees the king sized bed with red silk sheets that she has a sudden surge to touch. It's rude but in a castle this big she’s probably in a guest bedroom so what's the harm?

Right before her fingertips touch the silk she hears the doorknob and frantically looks around for a place to hide. The bathroom is too far away, the couch is exposed, the patio has glass windows. Where is she supposed to hide? She goes with the only option she has.


	3. chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey so good news and bad news! 
> 
> This chapter is a little gay. 
> 
> But this is also the last we see of interactions between the 2 for a few more chapters because ya know. We haven't met the rest of twice yet. 
> 
> I will be switching which characters i focus on though, the next two chapters could be switched out. So let me know in the comments if you want to see more Dahyun next chapter and wait for Sana, or get Sana next chapter and wait for Dahyun. 
> 
> The next few updates might take some time to write btw. 
> 
> Enjoy! 
> 
> edit: i was just informed its saida day on twitter so happy Saida day y'all

Dahyun can’t believe the floor is spotless even under the bed. She was certain that she’d be covered in dust when she ducked under the frame but apparently she couldn’t have been more wrong. The floor seemed just as clean as the plates in the kitchen. Who needs to have the space under their bed clean? How do you even clean this? Do they move the bed, clean the floor, and then put the bed back?

Actually why was she even here in the first place? She should’ve just talked to the person following her when she first noticed them. They were probably a guard who thought she was being suspicious or something. Clearly running had only gotten her into this ridiculous situation. It didn’t help that this mystery girl, the one who opened the door, was walking around the room and heavily sighing as if trying to get Dahyun to ask her what was wrong. Except Dahyun is under the bed so there’s no way she saw her. 

Dahyun could see mystery girl though, or part of her at least. Really she could only see the bottom half of a deep purple flowing gown, glittered with golden stars at the bottom. 

Or, at least, Dahyun had thought that the girl couldn’t see her, but now she had walked over to the bed and seemed to be standing right in front of her as she lifted the silk blanket and, very clearly, said, “How strange, it looks like this has been touched.” 

See, now Dahyun knew that was impossible because, first of all, she didn’t even get to touch the silk. Plus she was careful when she ducked under the bed so there was no way anything was out of place. But it didn’t stop her hands from getting even more sweaty. 

Actually why wasn’t she just telling the girl what happened? She’s a girl so she’d surely understand the fear of being followed. Maybe they could laugh about it and then walk back to the party together. 

Or this girl was a snobby noble who would get her boss in trouble and she’d lose her job while ruining the shop's business. Yeah actually maybe Dahyun would just stay under the bed and wait for the girl to leave. Which means she might have to wait awhile because mystery girl just sat down. As she crossed her legs, Dahyun was able to see golden heels tapping the floor rhythmically. The girl huffed in an impatient manner, and Dahyun had a sudden thought that this girl was probably a noble trying to suck up to the royal family. Why else would she be wearing so much of the royal family’s colors while using a guest room? Even more reason for her to stay under the bed. 

When the girl got up and loudly announced she was going to wash up in the bathroom, Dahyun realized this was probably her only chance to escape without getting into trouble. Surprisingly, even though she saw the girl walking away, the heels made no sound against the marble floor. 

The only sound she heard was the bathroom door shutting, so she quietly shuffled out from under the bed and looked around to see if the girl was really gone. When she didn’t see her, Dahyun straightened her back and let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. It seemed like the air was lighter now that the girl was gone, but Dahyun assumed that was just because she didn’t want to be caught earlier. 

It’s not over yet, she thought as she tried to tiptoe across the room. She cringed each time she heard her shoes clack against the floor, hoping that the running sink water was masking the sound. She really wanted to know how the hell mystery girl walked so silently, maybe it was a noble thing. 

Dahyun could feel butterflies in her stomach as she passed the couch, now noticing the few stuffed animals on it. She was so close to the door, only a few more steps and she could reach it. As she passed the bathroom door she held her breath, feeling her heart thump at a speed that shouldn’t be possible, or at least wasn’t healthy, against her chest. She’s been so quiet thus far, but then she stumbles and her shoe hits the ground too hard.

It’s at this moment Dahyun is aware she messed up, because the bathroom door swings wide open and suddenly a pair of arms are wrapped around her waist and pulling her into said bathroom. 

Dahyun closes her eyes as she's roughly shoved against the wall, she’s going to need to ask Tzuyu to give her a back massage later. She can feel her skin burning up and she’s grateful for the cool tile wall, since her arms are currently being pinned to it by mystery girl.

She wants to open her eyes, but she doesn’t think her poor little gay heart can handle it, especially not when mystery girl’s breath is close enough to heat up her ears. It doesn’t help that she smells like the summers Dahyun would go strawberry picking with her grandparents. 

“You know,” Mystery girl whispers into her ear, “It’s very rude to hide under someone’s bed. It could be taken the wrong way.” Dahyun’s face turned impossibly red, she was waiting for the girl to continue but instead she pulled back and seemed to be waiting for Dahyun to answer. 

When she didn’t get a response she leaned back in and said, “Don’t worry, I don't bite. Much.” 

At this point Dahyun just wanted to get out of this situation so she could go back to work, she somehow managed to stutter out, “I-I’m sorry. I got lost, and then I was being followed so I got scared and hid in here.” Her eyes were squeezed shut, hoping mystery girl would let her go. 

“I know.” Mystery girl says nonchalantly. 

Dahyun slowly opened her eyes, only to be met with the most beautiful woman she’s ever seen. There was something about the way the girl looks at her, like she’s trying to figure out where she knows her from. Her gaze seems to be piercing into Dahyun’s soul. But she’s quickly distracted by the jawline that looks so sharp it could cut her, and lips so red and kissable. She mentally hits herself for thinking that. Bubblegum pink hair flowing over her exposed shoulders, Dahyun tries her best to keep her eyes from looking farther down. 

“....what?” Dahyun managed to spit out, looking anywhere but at mystery girl.

“I was following you. I’m surprised you came into my room though, I thought you'd make a break for it.” The girl says as if it’s the most casual thing in the world. Dahyun furrows her brows and tilts her head.

“Why would you follow me?” What could a noble girl possibly gain from following her? She was only here to serve pastries. 

The girl sighs and releases her hold on Dahyun, she moves back to rest against the sink counter, rolling her eyes with a bored look on her face. “Because these parties are exhausting and following a cute girl like you seemed like fun.” Dahyun doesn’t react on the outside, but internally she’s screaming because Aphrodite herself just called her cute. She ignores the fact that she misses the calming strawberry scent the girl had.

Mystery girl suddenly turns her attention back to Dahyun, “So what’s your name? No offense, but you don’t look like a noble.” 

Dahyun’s eyes go wide and she quickly tries to smoothen out any wrinkles in her uniform, “I’m not, I’m from Sunset Pastries.” She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before bowing. “I’m very sorry for barging into your room, and if you don’t mind could you tell me the way back to the ballroom? I need to get back to my job.” 

Mystery girl lets out a giggle and Dahyun looks up confused, only to see the girl looking down at her intensely. “I mind. Why should I let you go back to work? Then I’ll have to be bored again.” She gets off of the counter and puts a hand on the wall next to Dahyun’s head, “Actually,” She says, running a finger up Dahyun’s sleeve, “I have a better idea. What if we have some fun, and then afterwards you can go back to your work or whatever.”

Dahyun is trying to be calm but this girl does not stop. She’s certain her face is burning brighter than the sun, “I-” She tries to get out but her voice cracks. 

“You.” Mystery girl smiles as she cocks an eyebrow at her.

“I’m s-sorry, but I can’t. I really need to get back to work.” The girl seems displeased at this because she ignores Dahyun and starts messing with the knot on her tie instead. That’s when Dahyun fully understands what this girl is talking about, squeaks, and ducks under her arm to escape. Dahyun moves at a speed she didn’t think was possible as she flings the hallway door open and sprints away. 

The last thing she hears the girl say is “Wait!” and she hopes it stays that way.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NOTE: Hey! Sorry this chapter took so long to write. I had trouble figuring out how I wanted to portray J-line. I was only planning on doing Dahyun’s pov for the fic originally, so I had some difficulty switching to Sana’s POV and what her character would be like. I’m not sure how good it is or how OOC i ended up making them. Next up will be Dahyun's POV and then we’ll see where we go from there POV wise. Let me know if you want to see more of Sana’s “POV”, I’ll write as it comes naturally but I’d like to take your opinions into account as well. Enjoy!

TW// alcohol/drinking mentioned

Sana couldn’t believe that girl just ran away from her. A princess? The princess? And the girl just ran away? It didn’t help that there was something about her eyes. They drew her in and made her want to spend her days staring into them, not to mention that there was something so familiar about them. She let out a groan as she stared into the bathroom mirror. 

“Do I have to go back to that damn party? I refuse to talk to one more suitor. Male or female.” She checks her makeup while pulling her phone out of her dress pocket and calling the first contact. 

“Where did you go? Mina got here like 10 minutes ago and she keeps trying to leave. She said if you aren’t here then she doesn’t have to be either.” 

Sana sighs, running a hand through her hair, and heads to the bedroom door. “Tell her I’m on the way. She knows how much I hate these parties.” 

“Momo, give me the phone.” Sana hears some noises in the background before Mina’s voice rings out clearly. “Just because I understand does not mean you get to leave me here alone. You’re not the only one who hates these parties. I swear if I see one more guy try to hit on me I’m taking you both with me and getting the hell out of here.”

Sana lets out a soft laugh, walking into the hallway, “Let me call one of the guards to hit on you so we can leave already.” Mina sighs on the other line. 

“Just get here already, I’m tired of waiting. Plus they’ve been asking for you since I got here. As if, because I'm your cousin, I'm supposed to magically know where you are at all times.” 

“But you do know where I am most of the time.” Sana says pointedly.

“Listen, just because you’re reckless and I keep tabs on you to make sure you aren’t dead does not mean I want to be your personal guard dog.” 

Sana hears a beeping sound and puts her phone back in her pocket. If her parents were asking for her then she should hurry back, but it might just be another suitor. She wishes she could just breathe and enjoy it. She presses in on a painting’s frame, and hears a click. Checking left and right she pulls up the skirt of her dress and walks forward, the hidden doorway closing behind her. 

She runs her fingers against the stone wall, she’s lucky this passage is frequented enough that it’s kept clean. She doesn’t even want to think about how dirty some of the other passages would make her dress. Not that she’d know. At all. She totally didn’t study the castle blueprint when she was younger so she could explore. 

Sana takes the time she has before she makes it to the party to think about that girl again. Something about her was just so familiar, but she might have seen her before at other parties so maybe that was it. Ugh, but she was sure she would have remembered if she had met a blonde as beautiful as that. 

She doesn’t have too much time to think though, because, before she knows it, she makes it to the other side of the passage and slips out from behind a tapestry, quickly spotting her parents mingling in front of the thrones. She was debating making a break for the door when she felt two different hands on her back leading her to the bar. 

“If they’re going to serve free booze we should be allowed to get wasted.” Momo said pointedly at Mina. 

“The point isn’t to get wasted, it’s to look refined. So you’re not supposed to get wasted. Or at least be obviously wasted.” Mina shot right back. Sana looked between the two of them before they both smirked at her. “But you know who can get wasted without being judged?” 

Oh god, this was going to be a long night. 

* * * * * * * * * *

Sana woke up, covered in sweat and tangled up between two other bodies. She groaned as she shoved the arms and legs wrapped around hers away. 

“Mhm.” The one on the left groaned trying to wrap itself against her again. Sana struggled with her for a moment before pushing Momo off the bed. She landed with a thump and took the satin sheets with her. Sana thought she might wake up, but instead she started snoring louder. 

She looked at the other body, who was now wrapped around the nearest pillow, somehow looking refined even as she slept. How Mina could do that even in her sleep, Sana would never know. 

She grabbed her head and groaned, she couldn’t even remember how much she'd had to drink last night. Mina and Momo had taken her hostage by the bar, but at least she didn’t have to entertain anymore suitors trying to “win her favor” or whatever. No matter who they were they always just looked at her like she was a pile of money placed on a throne. Even the ones who were royal themselves. 

“Ow! Shit, it’s too early for complex thoughts.” She voiced to no one in particular, as her best friends were both knocked out and would likely stay that way for the rest of the morning. She rummaged through the many bottles in her bathroom cabinet, when she found the pills for headaches she popped some into her mouth. She hoped they’d kick in soon. She closed the cabinet and stared into the mirror. Her hair was tangled and her make-up smeared. She must've knocked out before she could remove it. Oh god, she had bags under her eyes too. How late did she stay up? 

She stared at the wall behind her and remembered part of the reason she let herself drink so much. That damn girl. Sana didn’t know why but for some reason this girl's rejection hit her harder than any other time she’d been rejected. She still felt the need to track the girl down and ask why she said no. Convince her that Sana wasn’t just in it for the physical. 

But that wasn't true, was it? I mean she’d certainly had crushes and a few boyfriends/girlfriends before but there was no way she had one on this random girl. She only met her once and that lasted like five seconds. 

Ugh but there was just something about her that she couldn’t get out of her head. She felt safe, like home. Plus she had a slight coffee smell, maybe it was because she worked in a pastry shop but Sana didn’t care. She loved it. 

“Goddamnit Sana,” She looked into her own eyes and hit the sides of her cheeks lightly, “You are not going to fall for a girl you met once! Stop thinking about her right now!”

She was worried that if she didn’t stop thinking about the blonde then she really would track her down and make the girl change her mind about her. 

* * * * * * * * * * 

Sana was laying on the couch with her back against the arm rest, Mina laying in her arms while a romcom played on the tv. Both of them jumped a bit when they heard something thump onto the floor from over by the bed. (Earlier, when Mina woke up, they both struggled to lift Momo and put her back on it.) 

Sana watched Mina sit up and peek over the couch, staring in the direction of the thump.

“Well?” Sana poked Mina’s back but she stayed silent. So she sat up as well, leaning against Mina while peeking over the couch only to be met with Momo wrapped up like a burrito in the red sheets staring right back at them. 

“Can I get some help?” Momo’s voice had a tone of calm desperation. 

“I don't know,” Mina says, “I think I’d like to leave you there. You’re the reason I have a hangover right now.” 

“That’s my line.” Sana says as she hits Mina on the shoulder. “Momo, I’ll get you out in a minute. Just know that my revenge is coming and it will be sweet.” 

“I don't care, just please get me out of here. And preferably get me something to eat too, I smell chicken and pizza but it might be my hunger getting to me.” She wriggles around in the sheets trying to break free. 

Sana gets up, looking at the cheese pizza and wings on the table in front of her. “It’s your imagination, there's no food here.” She walks over to the bed and helps untangle Momo from the sheets.

“No, I’m telling you. I must be going crazy.” She starts as Sana unravels the last of the sheets trapping her. “It just really smells like-” 

“Like this?” Sana turns to see Mina holding a slice of pizza in her hand bringing it to her mouth. “It’s the last slice, and it’s all mine.” 

Before Sana can even process Momo has pushed her to the side and dove over the side of the couch to attack Mina. 

“Oh my god! Stop fighting! We can literally just order more pizza! What is wrong with you!” She walks towards the couch only to see the two of them wrestling on the floor. “Stop it! Or I’m kicking you both out right now!” 

They cease fighting long enough to say, in unison, “No you won’t.”

Sana rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “No, I won’t. Damnit.” She walks around the couch and falls on top of the both of them. She makes sure to spread out her body so she’s in the way of anymore fighting.

“Sana! Get off!” Mina starts pushing her.

“You’re in the way and I’m hungry! Move!” Momo hits her on the arm.

“Stop fighting! I want to watch movies! I’ll move if you promise to stop!” They both sigh and grumble that they’ll stop. Sana stands and helps the both of them up. They order more food and lie on the couch, with Sana sandwiched between the two, watching rom coms for the rest of the afternoon. 

Sana can’t stop herself from imagining a romcom about her, with a certain short blonde as her love interest. 

Maybe she’ll just have to pick up some coffee and pastries this week. She knows just the place to get them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Updates will probably be a bit slower now, but I'll do my best to update semi-regularly. We won't see Sana next chapter, but I'll try to do her pov after the next chapter. As always, i hope you enjoy! <3

A lone girl stumbles down the street in the middle of the night, trying to balance a heavy paper bag, a smaller white bag, and a drink holder with three cups. She hums along to the beat of her shoes clacking on the pavement. The girl sighs when she stops in front of an apartment building, glad she doesn't have to climb any stairs. She nearly drops everything trying to get the keys out of her front pocket, balancing all the bags on one side as she unlocks the door. 

“Unnie! Did you bring them?!” She sees Tzuyu run over to her from Chaeyoung’s bedroom door. Her eyes seem to sparkle more the closer she gets. 

“Tzuyu! Are you excited to see me or the pastries!” Dahyun whines. Tzuyu wraps her in a hug and when she lets go she somehow has the giant paper bag. 

“How many did you bring, this thing is heavy.” Tzuyu walks past the couch and into the kitchen, setting down the bag and opening the cabinets to get some plates. 

“Well, apparently rich people are allergic to good food, and once they’ve left the shop we can't bring them back so I got to take home a portion.” Dahyun sets down the drinks and empties the white bag. “Is Chaeng awake? I bought some medicine for her.” 

At that moment Dahyun hears the cutest voice yell, “Dahyun unnie~” 

“Ah.” She absentmindedly responds, hearing footsteps coming towards the kitchen, busy helping Tzuyu arrange the pastries on plates. Out of the corner of her eye she sees Tzuyu turn to look at Chaeyoung, and as Tzuyu starts yelling Dahyun turns to watch. A shiver going up her spine as she tries to hold in both her fear and her laughter. 

“SON CHAEYOUNG GET BACK IN YOUR BED RIGHT NOW!!!” Tzuyu yells with one hand on her hip and the other pointing a knife at the poor girl. Said girl has, wide-eyed in fear, stumbled backwards before tripping and landing with a thump. 

There’s a heavy silence in the air before Dahyun doubles over in laughter. She clutches her sides and her face goes red as she laughs so hard she can barely breathe, pointing back and forth between Tzuyu and Chaeyoung. 

Chaeyoung starts yelling, “Dahyun unnie! It’s not funny! Stop laughing! I was scared!” 

“I wasn’t trying to be scary! Unnieeeeeee! It was an accident, the knife was for the pastries! Unnie stop laughing at us!” Tzuyu whines while putting her face in her hands. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The three of them lay sandwiched on Chaeyoung’s small bed, Dahyun and Tzuyu on either side of said sick girl. 

“You know, I can feed myself.” Chaeng says, crossing her arms and huffing.

“Are you saying that because you want us to stop feeding you?” Dahyun starts moving the strawberry macaron towards her mouth instead of Chaeyoungs.

“No! Wait! I was just saying that I could if I wanted to.” Chaeyoung says desperately, reaching for the macaron. Dahyun bites into it before Chaeng can stop her and it makes a very satisfying crunching noise. 

“A S M R.” Tzuyu suddenly whispers, causing all three of them to start giggling. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Dahyun is woken up by someone tapping on her arm and whispering in her ear. She jolts up, but then realizes she's trapped under Chaeyoung. It was too dark outside for Dahyun to walk home, so she ended up spending the night. Sometime while they were sleeping though, Chaeyoung had wrapped herself around Dahyun like a koala. 

“Unnie.” Tzuyu whispers in her ear, standing next to the edge of the bed. Dahyun hums in response, still sleepy. “Do you want hot chocolate with breakfast?” Dahyun shakes her head no and closes her eyes, drifting off to sleep. 

The next time she opens them is when someone is yelling at her and shaking her awake. 

“Dahyun! Breakfast is ready! Wake up!” Chaeng yells as she pulls the blanket off of Dahyun. She peeks an eye open at Chaeng with a glint in her eye. 

“Someone seems to be feeling better this morning.” 

“I’m feeling great!” Chaeyoung smiles and flexes her biceps to prove how strong she is now that she's feeling better. 

“Is that so?” Dahyun says ominously before lunging at Chaeyoung and tickling her. Chaeyoung screams and her face turns red, they tumble around the bed while Chaeyoung tries to fend Dahyun off. They fall off the side, both laughing and red in the face with tears in their eyes. They let go and help each other up when Tzuyu yells at them to come eat breakfast. 

As the three of them sit at the table eating quietly, Chaeyoung suddenly stands up and yells, “I have an idea!” 

Tzuyu and Dahyun give each other a look and then turn to Chaeyoung, waiting for her to continue. 

“Unnie let me dye your hair!” She reaches for Dahyun, but the blonde quickly pulls back and holds her hair in a protective grasp. 

“What? No way! I like it this color!” She puts a hand out to try to stop Chaeng from getting closer.

“But you’ve had that color for so long.” Chaeyoung whines. “I really want to dye it as an apology for making you take my shift last night. Pretty please unnie? For me?” 

“No! No, no, no. You aren’t trying to dye my hair as an apology, you just want to dye someone's hair and I'm your current target.” Dahyuns says, pointing a finger at Chaeyoung. “Tzuyu help defend me on this.” She turns only to see Tzuyu looking, not at her but at her hair. 

“You’ve had that color for a really long time, unnie.” Tzuyu says, running a hand through a lock of Dahyun's hair. “It’ll look really cute in time for exams too.” 

“You too? Betrayer. Alright fine, let’s get this over with.” Dahyun says, dropping her head onto the table and sighing. 

“Unnie, you're so dramatic.” Tzuyu rolls her eyes at her as she helps Chaeng lift the older girl out of her seat into the bathroom. 

“Yeah unnie!” Chaeyoung happily says, “You’re acting like it's a punishment or something! It’s gonna look cute, just trust me!”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AUTHORS NOTE: Hey! This chapter is a bit longer than my other ones since I originally had it separated for two different chapters. I ended up combining them but again updates might be slow because of things going on in my life. Next chapter will be Sana’s pov though. I feel a little bad that some of you are excited for Saida but I want to be able to look at the characters “development” I guess. I’m not sure how long it’s going to be but it will most definitely be a slowburn if you hadn’t already figured that out. Enjoy!

The smell of fresh bread wafts through the air while Dahyun studies, seated at one of the tables inside the cafe. She hums along to the piano playing through the overhead speakers, her hands trying desperately to keep up with her brain as she types away, scanning the open books before her. She’s completely lost in her own world when suddenly a white cup is placed in front of her. She slowly takes her hands off the laptop keyboard and looks up to see Jihyo lovingly glaring at her. 

“Dahyun you have been working non-stop for two hours. Take a break and drink some hot chocolate.” When Dahyun frowns, Jihyo continues. “Think of it as fuel for more studying. Read a book for fun or something, I don’t care. Just take a break for a bit, okay?” Jihyo has a hand on her hip in the stance of ‘I’m being a responsible adult/parent so you have to listen to me.’ 

Dahyun thinks for a second, a finger tapping rapidly against the table while the other hand supports her chin. She really needs to finish this essay for class. She knows it’s not due for a few days and at this point she's just proofreading but she can’t afford to get a bad grade. The professor is combining it with the final test grade and she gets too nervous when she's testing. All those people staring at her, waiting for her to finish and tell her she failed. This is college, not high school so it's not like she can ask to take the test again or ask for an alternate final, she doesn’t want to be an inconvenience. She only has these professors for a semester and it's just easier on everyone if she takes the tests. Oh right, tests. She hasn’t even started looking at the notecards she made for her other classes, and- 

“Dahyun.” Jihyo's voice makes Dahyun jump a little bit and her finger stops its movement, she had forgotten Jihyo was still there. “I’m serious.” She puts a hand on Dahyun’s shoulder. “Take a break. If not for you then for me.” Dahyun nods in response and Jihyo smiles as she walks away. 

Dahyun shuffles an arm around in her bag, before pulling out the current fiction book she's reading. Technically it’s for her literature class, but it counts as reading for fun if she enjoys it. Not to mention it’s going to be on one of her tests. She moves the hand that was tapping earlier up to her ear and lightly tugging on it as she starts reading. 

Time seems to fly by, and before she knows it she's read five chapters. She would stop now but this last chapter has such a cliffhanger she needs to know what happens next. At this point she is literally on the edge of her seat, face buried in the pages with her eyes rapidly darting from word to word. 

She jumps up and screams when she feels arms snake around her neck, but her scream is cut off by a hand over her mouth and she struggles in the chokehold of this stranger. She starts to struggle against them, wondering why the hell someone would attack her in a cafe in broad daylight. 

“Guess who.” A voice says ominously, clearly trying very hard to sound super deep and intimidating.

“YOO JEONGYEON!” Jihyo’s voice rings out loud and clear across the shop. The attacker freezes in their hold on Dahyun. “Stop harassing my favorite coworker and order already!” Jeong sighs and lets go of Dahyun. 

“You’re no fun Jihyo, did you know that?” She says, walking towards the counter. Dahyun gets up and follows her without a second thought. “The usual please, your royal highness, God Jihyo.” Jeong overdramatically bows, when she stands back up Dahyun latches herself to her back in a loose hug.

Jihyo rolls her eyes as she shakes her head. “So two coffees and a bag of jelly filled donuts?” Jeongyeon nods and pulls out her wallet from the back pocket of her black jeans, only running into a little bit of difficulty because of Dahyun. 

“Ah! Let me make the coffee!” Dahyun says, letting Jeong go and walking behind the counter, before washing her hands and prepping the machine. While she waits for the machine, the three of them talk. 

“You know, I almost didn’t recognize you dubu. If it weren’t for all those books around you I would've walked right past. When’d you dye it?” Jeong asks, leaning against the counter and admiring the azure blue color of Dahyun's hair. 

“Chaeyoung did it yesterday morning. She said it was to apologize for making me take her shift, but really she just wanted to try the new color out .” Dahyun holds a lock of it in front of her and stares. 

“It looks good doesn’t it?” Jihyo says to Jeongyeon. “She said she’s not sure how she feels about it, but i think it looks cute on her.” 

“It was a good idea, it looks really cute in time for exams.” Jeongyeon reaches over the counter and ruffles Dahyun’s hair. 

“Stop it! You’re gonna mess it up!” Dahyun whines, smoothening it. “That’s what Chaeyoung said too.” She puts a hand in her pocket and lets the other one tug at her ear. “You’re all overreacting about my exams...” An uncomfortable silence fills the air and Dahyun starts to tap her left foot. 

“It’s not overreacting, we’re just worried about you.” Jihyo lightly hits her in the arm. “Also, I wanted to tell you that I’m willing to cover some of your shifts while you prep for your exams.” 

“Really?” Dahyun exclaims, stilling. “You’d do that?” Jihyo nods. The coffee machine beeps and Dahyun walks over and pours the coffee into the first cup. She very carefully draws a bunch of hearts and other shapes on the second one before filling it up as well. She hears Jihyo start a new conversation. 

“Anything fancy going on today with you and the girlfriend?” 

“Nah,” Jeong laughs. “She found out that I haven't seen some of her, to quote ‘favorite movies of all time that everyone should watch at least once, Yoo Jeongyeon how have you not seen these.’ So I’m going over to her place to do a movie marathon.”

“That sounds like fun!” Dahyun says setting the cups down in front of Jeongyeon, who looks from one cup to the other and then back up to Dahyun. 

“You’re giving her a bigger head than she already has you know. She keeps insisting that she needs to see the,” Jeong puts her fingers up in air quotes, “cute face of the girl who draws hearts on her cups.” 

Dahyun laughs, “How else am i supposed to treat the girlfriend of my favorite cousin?” 

Jeongyeon shakes her head and turns back to Jihyo, “I’ll see you this weekend for the double date?” 

“Yeah, Daniel’s excited to meet you both.” Jihyo says as she hands the bag of donuts to Jeongyeon. Dahyun looks between the two of them and whines. 

“Hey no fair, let me come! I want to meet Nayeon too!” She crosses her arms and pouts, hoping they’ll give in. Instead they both pinch her cheeks and coo at her like old ladies. 

“I thought you were going to study all weekend? Plus you don’t have anyone to bring.” Jeongyeon says teasingly, sticking her tongue out. 

“I could bring Chaeyoung or Tzuyu! You guys are so mean.” She puffs her cheeks out and grumpily walks back to her table. “Whatever, I don’t need your stupid double date. Tell Nayeon I love her.” 

Jeongyeon laughs as she uses her back to open the door, “I’ll let her know. Love you too dubu.” 

(this is a good place to take a break if you don't like reading for too long.)

*A few days have passed*

Dahyun has her back turned away from the door as she delicately boxes up some pastries for a customer's birthday party, she makes sure each wrapping is perfect, because everyone should have a good day on their birthday. The truth is, she finally finished that essay and turned it in. She got a perfect score so she’s letting herself take a little break and enjoy the day. 

As she was wrapping some croissants, she heard the little bell attached to the door ring and felt the air itself grow heavy in a way she had only felt once before.

Dahyun froze as she heard heels clicking against the store's tile floor, in the direction of the cashier. 

“What can I help you with today, miss?” Dahyun heard Jihyo say with an exceptionally cheery voice she only ever used for customers. 

Dahyun could feel her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest, but she had to be sure this was who she thought it was. 

“I’m….looking for someone.” It was mystery girl's voice, it had only been a week since that party but she wished it had been much longer before she saw the girl again. Preferably forever. Damn it, Dahyun knew she should've run into the break room when she had the chance. Now she couldn’t leave without it looking suspicious. 

“You’re looking for someone? Did they get lost? I haven’t seen anyone like that today.” Dahyun wished Jihyo would just telepathically hear her screaming to get the woman out of here. 

“Well, she’s not exactly lost...but she did run away so I suppose it counts. She has blonde hair and is about this tall? I believe she works here.” 

Dahyun’s hand stops tugging her ear, wait when did she even start tugging? Nevermind that’s not important. So the woman really was looking for her, oh god she was going to combust. She was certain she stopped breathing the moment mystery girl walked in and she couldn’t find the strength to start again. Her hands gripped the counter tightly, why can’t Jihyo just kick her out already. 

Dahyun almost jumps when she hears the familiar clink of silverware against tile. It’s silent for a moment before Jihyo says, “Oops! Sorry, sometimes I get a little bit clumsy while working.” She turned in Dahyun's direction to pick it up and Dahyun tappe her shoe twice, trying to be as silent as possible. 

Jihyo stands up and turns back to the woman with what Dahyun assumes is, because she couldn’t see, the brightest smile in the universe, “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t know who you’re talking about. We sometimes hire people for catering jobs as a one time thing, so I don’t think she’s an actual employee of our store. Would you like any pastries or will that be all?” 

Dahyun almost sighed in relief, Jihyo was always good at taking control of a situation and she was probably just about to get the woman to leave. 

“Well since I’m here, can I get an iced coffee and a croissant?” 

Oh god. Mystery woman, how could you? There was nothing Jihyo could help her with now, Dahyun just had to be careful not to show her face. She had never been more thankful to Chaeyoungs impulsive decision to dye her hair blue. Maybe she’d get lucky and mystery girl would leave without noticing her. 

Dahyun quietly shuffled over to the coffee brewer and turned it on, wishing this would go faster. While she was waiting she heard Jihyo box up a croissant and hand it to the girl. She got out a cup and filled it with ice, poured the coffee in and added all the other stuff. Dahyun swore she could feel mystery girls eyes on her every step of the way, and she heard Jihyo tell the girl that she could sit down and her coffee would be brought to her soon, but she just kept standing on the other side of the counter. Watching Dahyun. 

She got worried the cup was going to slip out of her hands, and she had to take a deep breath to stop shaking so much. When the iced coffee was done she put a lid on it and walked over to mystery girl with her head down as much as possible. Hoping she wouldn’t be recognized as she handed the coffee over to her. 

“Did I say I wanted the cup to go?” The girl said, it didn’t sound rude but it certainly sounded like she wanted a response and Dahyun was not about to let her hear her voice, she could already hear her heart threatening to suffocate her. She shot a desperate look to Jihyo as the girl leaned in closer trying to see her face. She got a whiff of the faint summery scent from before, Dahyun felt her fear turn to anger. Why the fuck is she calming down just from a smell? Luckily she didn’t have to endure for long because Jihyo, as always, rescued her.

“Ah, i’m sorry about that. Seyoung here is a new employee. Seyoung, why don’t you go take a break?” Jihyo said patting her on the back and taking the coffee cup from her. As Dahyun walked away, she barely heard Jihyo talking to mystery girl over the sound of her heart thumping in her ears. 

When Dahyun shut the break room door, she slumped against it and slid to the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut and held her knees as close to her as possible, trying to even out her breathing. 

After a few minutes Dahyun got up, grabbed her phone from her locker and sat at the table. She moved the cards out of the way so she could rest her head on it and she dialled the number.

“What’s up dubs?” Dahyun laughed softly at the calmness of her cousin's voice, feeling herself return to reality a bit, the boil in her blood calming and her muscles relaxing. 

“There might have been an incident. I’m okay now, Jihyo helped get me out of there. I just was so panicked, and then so angry...I just...” Her voice dies out. 

“It’s okay,” She heard Jeong say, “take your time dubs.” She squeezes her eyes shut and makes a fist. Why does this girl even bother her so much? She was having such a good day, how come this one thing ruined it?

After a few seconds of silence Jeong speaks again. “Do you want me to come pick you up? I’m supposed to go out with Nayeon today but I’m sure she'd be more than happy if you came with.” Dahyun let her fist relax as her lips curled into a soft smile. 

“No, it’s fine. I wouldn’t want to crash your date.” She hears a dramatic sigh on the other line.

“Trust me, Nayeon would literally love to have you there. I’d probably be the third wheel.” When Dahyun starts laughing, Jeong defends herself, “I’m serious! She’d probably take you and disappear until she needs me to drive you guys somewhere!” 

Dahyun took a second to breathe, appreciating how light the air is. Jeong lightly clears her throat before asking, “Hey, are you really okay? Do you need to talk about it? It’s okay if you can’t. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to.” Dahyun sits up and rests against the back of the chair.

“I think I’m okay now, but I don’t really want to talk about it.” Dahyun closes her eyes and thinks for a second, she did say she was going to take a break today. 

“Okay, are you still up for meeting Nayeon? She might be right beside me vibrating with excitement.” Dahyun heard a new voice say “Well don’t tell her that! She has to choose to come with!” 

Yeah, she definitely has time. “Tell her I would love to go on a date with her while you third wheel, and that I get off work in half an hour.” Dahyun gets up from the chair and stretches lazily. 

“Alright I’ll let her-” Jeong gets cut off by Nayeon screaming over her, “Love you Dahyun! See you then! Wear something nice for me!” Dahyun laughs softly as she hears the two bickering over the phone so she says bye and hangs up.

As she walks back to the counter she makes eye contact with Jihyo and smiles at her. Jihyo smiles back and nods before turning back to the line of customers. 

She’ll be okay.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AUTHORS NOTE: Hey! Sorry this chapter took so long to write, I struggled with characters again. If you recognize some of the dialogue this chapter, I promise you aren't going crazy, I re-wrote one of the scenes from someone else's POV. Also I have a twitter now! @RandoWriter As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter! <3

Sana spreads her arms and arches her back in a lazy stretch. Straightening her legs after having them in a cross-legged position on her office chair for so long. She’s probably been at this paperwork for a few hours now, trying to get through all of the requests and letters from her subjects. Well they weren’t hers yet, but they were why she had to do all this paperwork. She was also reading over and signing 0the treaties and such of other kingdoms’ governments as well. Her dad was definitely making sure she was ready to rule, she hoped he would give her a break this afternoon. She was starting to go a little stir-crazy, and she needed to get out of the castle to relax.

As much as she loves the book smell of this room, with various papers scattered on the desk surfaces and sturdy bookcases lining the walls, it could get a little intense after too long. Cracking open the window didn’t always help after spending such a long time in the room, she should really invest in scented candles or something if she was going to be spending more time stuck in here, writing and signing away.

She rubs her eyes as she puts the papers she had been working on in two stacks. Ones that were ready to be checked by her father and ones that still needed to be finished. She hums to the music playing from her bluetooth speaker as she fixes up the rest of the desk before standing. She walks over to the bookshelf and pulls a book with a purple cover and white accents. 

The bookshelf seems to be sucked into the wall before sliding away. Sana walks into the open passage, turning off her phone’s bluetooth and turning on the flash light. The bookshelf moves back into place as she walks forward in the semi-clean, but clearly older, passage. Glad that she’s wearing jeans because, although she doesn't see any bugs, she does see dirt. After walking for a little bit, following a curve, she spots some children’s drawings and smiles at the memory of drawing on the walls with her two best friends. She sees a box of chalk still on the ground by the drawings, and decides to reminisce. 

She picks up a random piece of chalk and draws a coffee cup with steam coming out of it, taking a picture and sending it to the groupchat the three of them have. They’ll probably laugh at the memory of them running down these passageways and getting into all sorts of trouble, sketching out maps when they got lost and arguing over which way they’d already been. Drawing little markers for the different types of room, mixing up which symbol went to what room and ending up in the weirdest places. 

She was almost to her bedroom when her phone buzzed in her hand with a message notification. 

Minari sent a message to “The Cool Royals”: You still use those old passages? How very princess-like of you. 

She giggles and is thinking up a reply when her phone buzzes again. 

Moguri: We should all go explore them again the next time we stay over! I wanna check out the creepy ones again, maybe we’ll find a ghost (≧∇≦)

Minari: Ooh, and then we can document it and become famous (^o^)

Sana frowned and typed out a message before she pulled the rope by the end of the tunnel. Tapping her finger against the back of her phone as she waited.

You: ＼(°ロ＼) NO GHOSTS!!! (／ロ°)／

Sana shined her phone’s flashlight behind her, swearing she just heard something, and subconsciously moved her back to face a wall as she waited for the, very slowly sliding open, portion of wall to let her out of the suddenly terrifying tunnel. Once the wall had slid open enough for her to fit through, Sana booked it out of there and grabbed the nearest object, pointing it towards the dark passageway. 

It’s only after the passageway is closed that Sana realizes a pink hairbrush probably isn’t that intimidating to a ghost, but nothing attacked her so if it's not broken, don’t fix it. But she really should invest in putting some sort of weapon in her room to ward off ghosts from using the secret passages to get her. Do baseball bats scare ghosts? Maybe. 

She sighs and falls onto her bed, happy that it's right next to the passage opening so she doesn’t have to walk too far. Her exhaustion is back full force now that she’s not scared or joking around with her friends. She rolls around until she's in the center and spreads out like a starfish, closing her eyes to rest and relax. 

But she’s apparently not allowed to relax because a not-so familiar face pops into her head. Sana would like to think she can’t get the pale girl out of her head just because she looked flawless in that suit, but it’s not true. A stray thought leads to her imagining the girl without a vest and with her sleeves rolled up, she didn’t think the girl could get hotter but now she needs to see her in that. Preferably without the tie and a button or two undone. Coffee girl would be the talk of every party if that happened, whether she was a noble or not.

She’d like to think she’s only interested in the girl for the physical, but what really haunts her is the girl’s dark eyes. They’ve been stuck in her head since she opened them that first time in the bathroom, something about them was so familiar and mesmerizing. Sana feels like she’s missing something, a puzzle piece that will unlock the mystery in them. 

She grabbed the nearest pillow and screamed into it before throwing it across the room. And then sitting up and throwing the rest of the pillows across the room. She sat there, grumpily, for a moment before wrapping herself up in the purple comforter and walking to her couch, leaning over the edge until she fell onto the cushions. She groans loudly, staring at the black tv screen, and hides herself further into the comforter. 

“Sana Minatozaki, you are Not having feelings for a girl you met once. That only happens in fairy tales. She clearly isn’t a knight and you don’t need to be rescued.” She rolls around so she's looking at the back of the couch. “Besides, it’s not like you’ll ever see her again anyways.” Her voice trails off for a few moments.

“Wait-” 

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sana found herself feeling a little out of place while she walked down the busy street full of shops, people staring as she passed. She was used to people looking at her, they had been looking all her life, but for some reason she didn’t want anyone looking at her right now. The eyes on her just made her feel nervous in a way she hadn’t been in years. 

What would these people say if they knew she was going to a pastry shop a decent way away from the castle specifically because of one blonde girl she just couldn’t get out of her head? She didn’t want to know. 

She pulled her cap down a little bit more and shoved her hands in her jean pockets. Godamnit. The sun was shining and it was only partially cloudy, but why did it seem like it was going to be such a bad day for Sana. Maybe it was nerves, but why would she be nervous? She shouldn’t be nervous, she’s Sana Minatozaki. She’s the princess. Next in line for the throne. She isn’t going to get nervous over a girl she met once no matter how much said girl won’t get out of her head. 

Sana finally stopped walking, and looked at the building across the street. It has the type of design you would expect of a cafe/pastry shop. There's a sign above it that says ‘Sunset Pastries’ in some sort of fancy font, the building is accented with dark wood, there's a patio where people are enjoying sweets and coffee, large windows to bring in more light, and even one of those signs propped out front with some of the menu items and prices. It looks very calming and cute, for some reason it’s exactly the kind of place Sana would expect coffee girl to work. Let’s just hope she’s in there. 

Sana had to wipe her palms against her jeans as she crossed the street, feeling her heartbeat speed up. Would the girl even remember her? Was Sana stuck in her head too? What if coffee girl didn’t want to talk to her? Oh god, what if she did. She swore her cheeks were heating up, but she blamed that on the sunny weather. She knew it was a lie, she just didn’t want to acknowledge any other reason yet. 

Sana took in a deep breath, composing herself the same way she does when she has to attend important meetings about the kingdom. She is Princess Sana Minatozaki and nothing can shake her now. She peered inside but didn’t see the familiar blonde behind the counter or at one of the tables, she could feel her courage fluctuate for a second before she reminded herself if she didn’t do it now then she never would. She opened the door and went inside, her heels clacking against the tile floor. She was worried that what had happened on the way here would happen again, but none of the people on the patio or inside the shop seemed to care about her. They all looked much too busy typing away on laptops or sticking their noses in books, it didn’t seem they’d notice the princess was here even if she sat right in front of one of them. 

She found she quite liked that, but she wondered if the staff would be the same. Oh right, she thought while walking up to the counter, I have no idea what the hell I'm going to say. Can I just ask them to tell me who she is? Or would that be weird? Can I still back out? I was hoping she would be here when I came so this would all be easier. What if I just turn around and walk out right now?

“What can I help you with today, miss?” Oh wow, she’s pretty. Also it’s clearly too late to walk out. I can just order a coffee that’s fine right? 

“I’m….looking for someone.” The words tumble out before she can stop them. ‘Oh that sounded weird didn’t it, I shouldn't have come here’. When the cashier’s eyes widen she realizes she made a mistake, fantastic. This is going terribly. 

“You’re looking for someone? Did they get lost? I haven’t seen anyone like that today.” The cashier says. Sana notices two things at this moment: there’s a name tag that reads ‘Jihyo’ on the cashier's button up vest, and this is definitely the same uniform that coffee girl was wearing the night of the party. 

Sana finds herself glancing around at the staff in the store, but the only one there, aside from Jihyo, is a girl standing in front of the coffee machine. Her hair is a beautiful shade of blue and it catches Sana’s eye. It doesn’t help that this girl isn't wearing a vest and has the sleeves of her button up shirt rolled up, it reminds her of coffee girl a little bit. She can’t help but be distracted. Sana shakes her head, trying to focus. 

“Well, she’s not exactly lost...but she did run away so I suppose it counts. She has blonde hair and is about this tall? I believe she works here.” Sana raises her hand to about a few inches below her height, trying to pay attention to what she’s saying and not to the blue haired potential beauty in her field of vision. Sana doesn’t even notice Jihyo’s smile falter before falling back into place, what pulls her out of her concentration is the clinking of silverware on tile. Her eyes are drawn to the blue haired girl, who jumps just the tiniest bit. 

Cute.

“Oops! Sorry, sometimes I get a little bit clumsy while working.” She hears Jihyo say, but it goes in one ear and out the other. She's busy studying the way the blue hair comes down in waves from the girl’s ponytail, Sana wonders if she curled it. She also wonders what it would feel like to run her fingers through it, it looks soft to the touch. When the woman, Jihyo, stands back up it breaks Sana out of her trance. 

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t know who you’re talking about. We sometimes hire people for catering jobs as a one time thing, so I don’t think she’s an actual employee of our store. Would you like any pastries or will that be all?” 

What? No way. She definitely worked here, right? Did Sana go to the wrong place? No, there's no way because she hasn’t been able to forget a single moment of the encounter since it happened. She knows the girl said ‘Sunset Pastries’, she had to have said that. But, maybe the girl really was just a temporary worker. Sana’s shoulders deflated a bit. Well she should at least cheer herself up with a treat then. 

“Well since I’m here, can I get an iced coffee and a croissant?” She tried not to sound too defeated, she just hoped the pastries and coffee here were half decent. She didn’t end up trying any at the party. She noticed that the blue haired girl started getting her coffee ready, and suddenly Sana had a thought. If it wouldn’t work out with coffee girl, maybe she could flirt a little with this blue haired girl. She was clearly, at least, a little bit attracted to her. There was something about her that drew Sana in the same way it had with coffee girl. Some sort of familiarity. 

Unless, this was coffee girl? 

While she admired the blue haired girl she absentmindedly paid and grabbed the croissant. She heard Jihyo say that she could sit down and wait for her coffee. 

“No, no. I’m alright waiting here.” She brushed the suggestion off, paying as much attention as she could to what she could see of the girl. It’s possible that she’s coffee girl, but Sana really can’t be sure until she sees her face. She has pale skin, and she looks about the same height. But Sana hasn't gotten a good look at anything but her back, so she could be completely wrong. 

Finally the girl turns around, but Sana almost groans in frustration because she can’t see her face. The girl has her head bowed so low that she’ll have to bend a bit to get a look at her face, but it would be weird if she did that. Maybe she could see her nametag? No, that seemed to be either not there or hidden somewhere on the uniform, not that she knew coffee girls name in the first place. But maybe she could get the girl to speak, that would be all the evidence she’d need. But how to get her to talk? She was clearly either very shy or very nervous. Oh, of course. She was a customer.

“Did I say I wanted the cup to go?” She tried her best not to sound rude, she didn’t want to scare the poor thing. She just wanted to see if it was the same girl who’s been stuck in her head for days. It looked like the girl was just about to respond, even if it was only to escape, but Sana needed to hear her to know for sure. 

“Ah, I’m sorry about that. Seyoung here is a new employee. Seyoung, why don’t you go take a break?” Jihyo said, patting the girl on the back and taking the drink from her. 

Sana cursed under her breath, thanking Jihyo for the drink as it was handed to her. The only thing she really got to see of the girl that she couldn’t already see were her dark brown eyes. She was almost certain it was the same girl, but so what if it was? What was she even trying to accomplish by going there in the first place?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Sana was laying down with her face smushed against the bed when she heard a pattern of knocks against her door. She mumbled a response, knowing even if they couldn’t hear her they would come in anyways. 

“Sana?” She could hear Mina say as her two best friends walked into the room. She didn’t say anything because they’d see her once they walked a little farther in. She heard the both of them setting down their stuff on the couch, before walking towards her. 

“Sana, it's rude to not speak when spoken to.” Momo said, falling on top of the princess, who left out an “oof” but didn’t reply. “That bad?” She heard Mina walk over to one side of the bed, propping herself up with pillows when she sat down.

“Sana, come here.” Mina patted her lap and Momo rolled off of Sana to let the girl place her head on Mina’s lap. Her head faced upwards but she kept her eyes closed, grumbling it was too bright. Momo took the opportunity to put her head on Sana’s stomach and lay there. “What’s going on?” 

“Yeah.” Momo started, turning to the side to stare at Sana. “It was the most ominous phone call I’d gotten in my life. Dead silence and then a groan. I thought you were patient zero for a second.” 

Sana let out another groan. 

“Oh god, she is patient zero. Mina quick! Help me tie her up!” Momo teased, poking Sana in the sides. She succeeded when Sana giggled a little bit. Starting to relax, mostly from the feeling of Mina playing with her hair. 

“I just needed to talk to you guys. It’s nothing serious-” Sana started, before being interrupted by Mina nonchalantly saying, 

“If it wasn’t serious you would have asked over the phone.” Sana opened her eyes to see Mina shrug. She glared at her before continuing. 

“What if you have someone stuck in your head. And no matter what you do, you just can’t stop thinking about them.” 

“Is it me? I’m sorry Sana, I love you but I’m taken. Maybe in a different life.” Momo says, putting a hand over her heart dramatically.

“Momo! This is serious!” Mina says, making Sana hopeful that she’ll get actual advice. “Obviously this is about me. I’m much more her type.” 

Sana hits the both of them.

“It’s not about either of you! Neither of you are good enough for me.” She's quickly interrupted by the both of them saying they are more than good enough and she’d be lucky to have either of them. She just waves her hand until they quiet down. “It’s just hypothetical anyways, but what if you did?” 

Momo speaks up first, “Well, I’d probably try to figure out why. I might even try to interact with them more to see if I could figure it out.” Mina nods her head. 

“Momo has a point, I’d probably try to spend more time with them too. Maybe they had just piqued my interest or I wanted to be friends with them or I liked them. But I wouldn’t be sure until I interacted with them.” 

“You definitely are interested in them though, like attraction wise.” Sana said, trying to see if that would change their answer. 

“Sana what is this really about?” Mina asks, booping the princess on the nose.

“If you like someone Sana, you can tell us. We’re your best friends and we won’t judge you.” Momo pauses for a second. “Unless it’s that one prince guy. Then you’re totally gonna get judged.”

Sana smiles a little bit, “It’s not a prince. They’re not even a noble. She’s just. Captivating.” When she's met with silence she looks at her friends and sees them sharing a look. Before they turn to her simultaneously and say 

“Ooh, someone has a cruuush~” 

“I-I do not!” Sana stutters out, sitting up to look at the two of them. “She’s just very interesting!”

“Tell us more about her then, if she’s so interesting.” Mina eggs the princess on.

“Yeah tell us more about your crush, Sana.” 

“Fine! But only because Mina asked so nicely.” Sana crosses her arms. “She has bright blonde hair that suits her skin tone perfectly, dark brown eyes that you could get lost in, and god. When she wears a suit. Let’s just say it’s probably a sin to look that good. Not to mention-” Mina interrupts her. 

“Sana you sound like a fanfic writer trying to describe the MC, so I’m going to cut you off there.”

“Sana, you definitely like this girl. That’s like a given right now. So now onto the more important part, who is she.” Momo wiggles her eyebrows towards the princess. 

“Yeah, you said she’s not a noble so how did you meet her?” 

“Well she was working for one of the catering places at the party. But I doubt I’ll see her again, because I went there today to see if I could find her. Plus if she was who I thought she was then it’ll be difficult to talk to her again in general.” Sana said, mostly thinking out loud at this point. 

“Excuse me, you what?” Momo said, sitting up and staring at Sana.

“I second that. Sana, you didn't tell us you went out today? You know how your parents are when it comes to your safety, especially now!” Mina said, her eyes widening. But Sana wasn’t listening to either of them anymore. 

“Wait, if I can’t reach her in public, then I can just have another party! I need to start planning now. This is going to go great!” Sana jumped off the bed and almost ran down the hall, with Mina and Momo chasing after her, demanding explanations.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW// overthinking , anxiety 
> 
> PLEASE READ: So if you haven’t noticed, I added an anxiety tag to Your My Destiny. I didn’t initially mean to have this fic talk about and deal with mental health, but I write what comes to me naturally and this is something that comes to me naturally. Rather than brush over it, since I upload as I write and I can’t exactly go back and re-write, (I could, but I don’t really want to) I plan on putting more depth into it. So there’s a character development there that makes sense. I will do my best to write about it and dealing with it in a healthy manner, but I make no promises. If I ever write something that you find triggering and I haven’t added a TW, and you think that I should, please comment and I will re-upload the chapter with the TW. 
> 
> SUMMARY:  
> I plan on involving mental health in the fic more, I assure you this is STILL a happy-ending fic, but if you struggle with mental health or you feel that the topic of anxiety, overthinking, or other mental health issues may be harmful or triggering to you then I would suggest reading only when you feel that you are in the right place mentally to do so, or not read at all. Thank you. 
> 
> AUTHORS NOTE: I’m really sorry it took so long to write this chapter, I didn't mean for it to take so long but I started to struggle with my mental health a bit, and then college started. I apologize if this chapter isn’t the same quality of previous chapters, I'm just struggling a bit so please be forgiving if updates come out slower. This chapter is also pretty long compared to my usual chapters. I had a lot that I wanted to convey in this chapter so we could move forward on the romance track. This chapter is mostly drawing connections between characters, so you have a good idea of who they are. If you get bored reading for long periods of time then I suggest taking breaks at any of the “ ********* ” parts, as you know by now those are how I scene switch so they’re good spots to take breaks at. However, about halfway through I also say where it’s a good spot to take a break. As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy. <3 ^-^

TW// overthinking , anxiety 

“You’re sure I'm not imposing right? I really don’t want to crash your date . . . I can just go home, you know?” Dahyun said, walking with her cousin while they followed Nayeon into the crowded mall.

“Don’t worry dubu, you aren’t crashing anything I promise. Just have fun okay? We both want to be spending this time with you right now.” Jeongyeon put a hand on Dahyun’s back as she steered her from getting too close to the groups of people around them. 

They walked for awhile, Dahyun was surprised they hadn’t stopped at any stores yet. Maybe Nayeon had a specific place in mind? Hopefully not anywhere too expensive. Or that was too crowded. 

Someone bumped into Dahyun and she silently said sorry, putting her head down. She felt Jeongyeon pull her a little closer, but she didn’t look back up. She just studied her shoes, she would have to re-tie them soon. 

“You’re both so slow!” Nayeon exclaimed, turning around to look at the two cousins. “Jeongyeon I don't care if you,” She emphasized the you as she approached them, “trail behind.” She pinches Dahyun’s cheeks and grins at her, “But this cutie has to walk with me.” 

There was something about Nayeon, an air of elegance to her that made people steer clear out of admiration and respect if nothing else, and Dahyun noticed that she didn’t have to worry about anyone getting too close to her now. As they walked, Nayeon filled the silence with some story of a party she had been to, apparently she had met the princess a few times, and before Dahyun knew it they had arrived at an ice cream shop of sorts. But when the workers made the ice cream it looked like some sort of fog spilled over the edge of the counter.

“Alright cutie, what do you want?” Nayeon asked, lifting up Dahyun's hand to get her attention. When Nayeon had originally grabbed it? Dahyun had no idea, she must not have felt it, but it was surprisingly nice. 

“I want-” Jeongyeon started behind them before Nayeon interrupted her. 

“I asked the cutie what she wanted, not you.” Nayeon made a face at Jeongyeon and turned back to Dahyun, “So what do you want?” 

“Oh, um, anything chocolate i guess? How do they do that?” Dahyun said without thinking too hard, pointing at the fog spilling to the floor. Nayeon smirked. 

“I told you she’d like it.” She said pointedly at Jeongyeon.

“Everyone likes it, it's cool. Don't forget that everything you know about her is because of me.” Jeongyeon then turned her attention to Dahyun. “It’s nitrogen, they freeze the ice cream really fast and that fog comes out.” Then her voice took a dark turn, “But some say, it’s the ghosts coming from beyond to steal your ice cream. BOO!” She yelled suddenly, making both of them jump before getting hit. After Jeongyeon was thoroughly reprimanded, Nayeon let go of Dahyun’s hand to order their ice cream, and she immediately felt the absence of the comfort Nayeon provided.

“Watch this, it’s hilarious.” Her cousin said, moving to stand next to her. Dahyun looked up at Jeongyeon, surprised to see her looking at the other girl with so much love in her eyes. They seemed to bicker pretty often so she was worried they didn't really get along, Dahyun looked at Nayeon to see if she was doing something funny or cute. She was just ordering the ice cream though? 

Luckily, without prompting, Jeongyeon continued, “The first date we went on, we came to this shop. You might not think she’s a very observant person, but after hearing my order the first time she’s never forgotten it.” It was then that Dahyun remembered that Nayeon hadn’t asked Jeongyeon what she wanted, only Dahyun. 

“I told her it was my favorite one time, and she made a point to remember it.” Dahyun smiled when she heard that, her cousin didn’t really have the best luck with romance but it seems like Nayeon really was good for her. She hoped it worked out for them. 

As soon as Nayeon turned around though, Jeongyeon stuck out her tongue. “Did you get the right one?” 

Nayeon looked offended for a split second before grinning mischievously, “Yeah, you wanted bubblegum and jellies with caramel syrup right?” Dahyun almost gagged just imagining the combination. 

Jeongyeon smiled “I thought that one was your favorite.” Nayeon made a hmph sound and turned back around. “Dahyun, do you want to walk around or sit while we eat?” 

“Can we walk around? It’s too cold in here to sit down.” She loved the fog and general aesthetic but ice cream shops were always freezing.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dahyun wasn't used to so many questions about her life. Well that’s not true, she was used to people asking questions about her, but she wasn’t used to people asking in the ways that Nayeon did. She did it so casually that Dahyun never felt nervous or like she was oversharing or anything. 

When Nayeon had asked her major, korean literature, she did so in the middle of talking about Jeongyeon’s final year. Saying that Jeongyeon was a silent stresser, which Dahyun had to hide a laugh at. Clearly they had that in common. 

Jeongyeon, like always, had asked if she was doing alright in her classes and offered her help if Dahyun ever needed it. Luckily though, Dahyun doesn’t have too much to stress about right now. All of her work was finishing right on schedule, she even had some wiggle room in case she ran into any problems. Nayeons voice draws her from her thoughts, she’s holding a black and white striped shirt up to Dahyun, trying to see if it’ll fit with her eyes. 

“I think black and white looks good on you, but pink or blue might look nice too. What colors do you like?” Nayeon gives the striped shirt to Jeongyeon and starts looking through the racks again. 

“Pink and white, but I also like red. Unnie, are you shopping just for me?” She follows Nayeon as the older girl picks out a few more shirts, making sure to throw in some of the colors Dahyun mentioned, before leading them to the dressing room. 

“Who else am I supposed to shop for? I have all the clothes I'll ever need, and Jeongyeon won’t let me dress her up.” She crossed her arms and stuck a tongue out at her girlfriend. Dahyun just laughed and started trying the shirts on, she was worried there would be an awkward silence but Nayeon seems to make conversations just flow. 

“Did you tell Jihyo that it's her turn to choose a movie for movie night this week?” 

“Yeah, she said Daniel was picking out a few good ones that she was going to approve.” Jeongyeon responded, not sounding very confident in Daniel’s movie picking abilities. 

“That’s good.” Nayeon seems to redirect her voice towards Dahyun, “Do you like movies Dahyun? I love them.” 

“Ah, movies are good but I’m more of a book person.”

Nayeon laughs. “That makes sense. How did you end up working for the cafe? From what I've heard, you sound more like a bookstore person.” 

Dahyun thought for a minute, trying to recall why exactly she started working there. Before she could remember though, her cousin spoke up. 

“Actually it was sort of because of me. Dahyun would always study at home and over-stress, I figured she would study better in an open environment like that. Luckily around the time she was looking for a job, Jihyo told me they were going to try to hire some newbies. I might've put in a few good words about my favorite cousin, and she got the job.”

“Oh I remember! You offered to walk me to the interview and told me not to stress, they basically hired me as soon as I opened the door. That was because of you?” 

“Well, it’s not all me. You had to show you could do the basics, and that you could get along with Jihyo. Which you did, flawlessly. But you’ve never had trouble getting along with people.” 

Dahyun walked out with the pink and white striped top on, “It's in the genes.” She flashes a toothy smile, which Nayeon squealed at, saying that she had to buy Dahyun this shirt. Dahyun tried to refuse but Nayeon wouldn't let her.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dahyun browses the various clothes feeling very out of place, she stopped touching them after she realized how expensive the fabrics were. Nayeon had said she needed to pick up a dress, and had led them towards a sleek door with expensive brand logos on the windows. When they walked in Dahyun was glad she hadn’t changed after her shift, she probably would’ve worn a hoodie and this was the type of store that definitely judges you on what you wear.

Right now she was looking at the dresses, a beautiful red one had caught her eye. It was low cut with thin straps, she really liked it, but when she was brave enough to check the price tag she nearly fainted. 

“Kim? Kim Dahyun?” 

Dahyun’s head turned so fast she almost got whiplash, she had forgotten people from school came to the mall as well. She saw a classmate of hers, he was in a group with her for this book project in one of her literature classes.

“Ah, hey.” Dahyun was kind of shocked, does he often shop here? Apparently the question showed on her face because he quickly responded.

“I saw you from outside, and I wanted to come say hi.” He smiled at her, waiting. When Dahyun just nodded he continued. “Well, actually I was hoping you could do me a favor and I’d owe you one.” He laughed and glanced back at the door. That's when she noticed that he had a group of friends waiting for him outside.

“Yeah,” He gave a light laugh, one used to dispel awkwardness. It didn't work, but he kept talking anyway. “I’m really struggling with my part of the project in class, you know?” 

“Oh? Do you want help? I finished my part so I have time to help you figure it out.” She didn’t understand why he didn't just text her, there was a group chat after all. 

“I know you finished your part, I was hoping you could take some of the work off my shoulders, with it being graded as a group and everything.” His face fell, and he looked much less friendly. “You wouldn't want to get a bad grade right?” 

Dahyun froze, and as she was thinking up a response Nayeon walked up to her. 

“Dahyun, I’m finished. Did you find anything you like?” She stopped, noticing the new person, “Oh, is this one of your friends?” 

“Ah, just a classmate. I should probably get going now.” He gave Nayeon a quick bow, “Thanks for helping, Dahyun.” And left before either of them could say anything. 

Dahyun taps her thumb and middle finger together, she knows Nayeon is talking but she's not listening, her eyes dart rapidly as she runs through her schedule. She has room for this, if she does his part of the project she’ll be a little tired, but she’ll have time for rest and she won’t have to worry about them getting a bad grade. She chews her bottom lip a little, focusing on where she wants to put it in her imaginary schedule. She just has to do everything else perfectly, if she runs into any more problems then she won't have time to take care of herself and do her work. 

She’s still lost in her thoughts when Nayeon places a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump a bit. Nayeon has a look of concern on her face and she opens her mouth to say something when she's interrupted. 

“Nayeon! I found these two really cute shirts that you should try on. Go! Quickly.” Jeongyeon puts the clothes in Nayeon’s hands and she pushes the girl towards the dressing rooms. Nayeon looks back at Dahyun, who gives her a light smile. Nayeon nods and then hits Jeongyeon on the shoulder. 

“Stop pushing me! I'm going, geez.” And she heads off. Jeongyeon puts a hand out in Dahyun's direction and calls her over.

“You’re gonna want to watch this, come on.” Jeongyeon said, wrapping an arm around Dahyun with the biggest smile on her face. Dahyun let herself be led to the dressing rooms and she only had to wait a moment before the door burst open. 

“YOO JEONGYEON!” Nayeon yelled in the loudest voice that Dahyun thought she’d ever heard. It reminded her of when Jihyo would scold her cousin for pulling pranks. When she realized that her cousin was laughing so hard she was almost falling over, she looked at the rest of Nayeon. She was wearing a bright yellow fuzzy top with green jewels lining the long sleeves. Her face was bright red, and she looked kind of like a chicken. 

After thoroughly threatening Jeongyeon’s life, Nayeon tried on the second shirt and Dahyun was surprised that it fit Nayeon's style so well. Her cousin must’ve really cared about the girl, to know her sense of style. She was still an annoying prankster though.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After browsing through various shops, with Jeongyeon holding all of the bags, someone in the crowd calls out to Nayeon. Dahyun’s surprised, Nayeon seems so untouchable. How could someone just call out to her? In every store she's been in, the staff have treated Nayeon with a respect she's only seen used for famous people. She knows Nayeon is a noble but it didn't register how noble she is until they started shopping. 

“Nayeon! What are you doing here!” Dahyun watches as a girl with long black hair approaches and pulls Nayeon into a hug. 

“Momoring! I’m just shopping, as usual.” Nayeon gestures to Dahyun and Jeongyeon, Dahyun bows and Jeongyeon says hi, she’s carrying too many bags to really do anything else. The girl, Momo, approaches Dahyun and pinches her cheeks just like Nayeon did earlier. 

“Nayeon, this girl is so cute! Did you finally get a sugar baby? Give her to me, she has the type of face that makes you just want to spoil her.” Momo smiles at her, but her hands are removed by Nayeon. 

“She is cute, and she's all mine so dont touch her.” Nayeon says teasingly. Jeongyeon interrupts the two of them, having set some of the bags down.

“You’re not too far off, she’s my cousin. But Nayeon certainly seems to like spoiling her.” The three of them laugh and Dahyun shyly smiles, she kept insisting that she could pay for things but Nayeon wouldn't let her. She bought Dahyun a bunch of clothes and treats, pulling out her card before Dahyun could every time and saying ‘just let me handle everything’.

“Ah! Right!” Momo suddenly turns to Nayeon, “There’s going to be another party in a few days. It’ll be a casual one with like a third of the normal number since Sana is planning it herself.” 

“Oh?” Nayeon’s eyebrows rise, “I thought she hated party planning? Is there a reason for this one?” 

“I wish I knew, she told us she was going to plan one and then ran out without an explanation. I’m shopping for a new dress right now.” 

“Hmm, I might already have something that works. Thanks though Momoring.” The two hugged. “We should probably keep shopping, I’d invite you but I want to keep Dahyun to myself a little longer.” She laughs. 

Momo squeezes Dahyun's cheeks again, “I can see why.” Then she talks to Dahyun directly, “If you ever want someone else to spoil you, ask Nayeon for my number. You’re cute, so I wont mind.” Nayeons yells that she would mind and Dahyun shyly nods her head, not used to so much attention. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

GOOD PLACE TO TAKE A BREAK IF YOU NEED ONE!!!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

They’re on the way out to the car, the two cousins trailing behind the oldest in a comfortable silence until Jeongyeon decides to speak up. 

“You know, she had a lot of fun today.” Jeongyeon laughed, looking at her girlfriend. “Did you have fun?” Dahyun looked at her cousin, there was a soft smile on her lips. Whipped.

“Yeah, it was nice. I’m glad I got to relax a little bit before I have to start studying again.” Dahyun looked off into the distance, taking a deep breath. Appreciating the clean air. “Thank you. I needed this.” 

Jeongyeon ruffles her hair and puts an arm around her. “I’m here for you dubu. We all are, you just have to rely on us a little bit more.” Dahyun hums and they keep walking, content. Until Nayeon turns around, and abruptly asks a question that causes Dahyun to stop in her tracks. 

“So Dahyun, you know that I’m dating your cousin, and I was wondering. Is there anyone special in your life? Any partners or crushes?” 

Dahyun's mouth goes dry, before she can even think, the image of a pink-haired girl who smells like summer pops into her head. She shakes her head and is about to say no, when her phone starts buzzing. She pulls it out of her pocket, noticing the caller ID is from the leader of her chemistry project. Why are they calling her? The assignment is due in two days, and she’s been done with her part for almost a week.

“Hello?” She furrows her brows, waiting for them to respond. Nayeon stops so that the cousins can catch up and they can all walk to the car together.

“Oh good! You answered! I need you to do me a huge favor.” Dahyun stays silent. What kind of favor would they be asking? She doesn’t really have time to help with anything, she has a schedule that she needs to stick to and there’s no room for anymore setbacks. “One of the other people got sick and they haven’t finished their part of the project yet, haven’t even started it apparently.” They laugh, as if it’s some inside joke Dahyun is supposed to get. She doesn’t. 

“Oh, well-” Dahyun’s voice comes out quiet, before being cut off. She sticks her free hand in her pocket.

“I tried calling someone else, but they didn’t pick up.” The person sighs, “You know, I’d do it, but I just have so on my plate right now with all the exams I have to study for.” 

But they aren’t the only one, Dahyun has stuff to do this week too. Plus she promised Tzuyu and Chaeyoung that she’d work on her sleep schedule this week. Her free hand goes from her pocket to rubbing the back of her neck. 

“Well, I have exams-” She tries to say, before being rudely interrupted again. 

“Plus, you’re the only one of us who’s finished their part so far. And I don’t want to force anyone to do too much work at once, you know?” 

Like you’re doing to me? She starts tugging on her ear, standing still. Nayeon and Jeongyeon stop as well, they look confused but she can’t explain while she’s on call. She doesn’t have time to help them, no more extra work. She just has to tell them no. 

“The thing is-” 

“You’re the only one that I can trust to get it done! I’m counting on you! Fighting!” And then the beeping of an ended call.

She stands there, the phone still up to her ear, her lips still parted as if she's going to say something. She didn’t tell them no. She couldn’t. 

It’s fine, she’s fine. It’s graded as a group, and no one will do it for her. She can almost feel the tears coming, but she won’t let herself cry in front of them. She just needs to get home. 

“Dahyun? What was that call about?” Her cousin rubs circles on her back, it should be comforting but it just makes her want to cry more. She can handle this, she’s done things like this before. It’s not new, but she said she was going to work on not working so much.

“One of my classmates, they asked me to do another student’s part of the project. Apparently they’ve been out of reach and haven’t done anything yet.” Her voice sort of echoes in her head, it's loud outside but so quiet in there. It’s hard to concentrate 

“When is it due?” Jeongyeon leads Dahyun closer to the car. 

“Two days.” 

Jeongyeon and Nayeon stop walking, but Dahyun continues, tapping her finger against her thigh. 

“Dahyun.” Nayeon says in a low voice, with a clear command behind it. Dahyun stops and turns, her finger tapping faster. She just wants to go home. 

“Dahyun, tell them you can't do it.” Her tone sounds soft, but it’s more of an order than a suggestion. “That's way too soon of a date for you to do all the work yourself, they should be helping.” Her tone gradually becomes more agitated, “What about someone else helping you? There’s got to be a fourth person in the group. Make them help!” 

Dahyun struggles to respond speaking very quietly with tears pricking her eyes, “I-it’s fine, I can handle it-” 

“No you can't! Jeongie has told me how you stress-”

“Nayeon.” Jeong warns.

Nayeon takes a breath. Dahyun is visibly shaking, one arm wrapped around her body and the other tugging on her ear. She puts a hand on Dahyun's shoulder, the girl jumps a little bit, so she pets her hair instead, holding out an arm for a hug. Dahyun lets her, and when Nayeon pats her back, she starts calming and hugs her. 

“I’m just worried. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” Dahyun stays silent, just holding onto Nayeon’s shirt. “You’re going to do this no matter what right?” A pause and Dahyun nods into Nayeon’s shoulder. “Alright, then how can we help? Do you want to go home, so you can start working?” Dahyun nods again, and Jeongyeon comes over to ruffle her hair.

“Then let's go home Dahyun.” Jeongyeon grabs her cousin’s hand and sits in the back of the car with her, rubbing the space between her thumb and pointer finger, while giving Nayeon directions. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“It’s okay really, thank you for taking me home. I’ll be alright now, i just freaked out a little bit earlier.” Dahyun says, turning the key in the lock and twisting the knob, but keeping the door shut. “It’s okay if you want to go home.”

Nayeon smiles at her as she reaches her arm over and pushes the door open. Dahyun just stands in the doorway as Nayeon brushes past her and enters the house. She pulls out her phone from her back pocket as she takes off her shoes in the entryway. 

“So what do you want for dinner? It’s on me, so you don't have to get something cheap.” While Nayeon walks around the apartment, taking a good look at everything, she scrolls through nearby food places. Jeongyeon puts a hand on Dahyun’s shoulder and lowly speaks to her. 

“I know she can be a little pushy, but she means well. You can tell her, or me, if you feel uncomfortable or if you want to be alone.” A pause. “We want to be here for you Dahyun, but only if you want to let us be.” Dahyun watches the subject of their conversation clearly make herself at home, having already spread out on the couch. 

“It's...oddly comforting to have her here. I think it’ll be good.” Dahyun is surprised to find that she means it too. She really likes Nayeon. Jeongyeon smiles softly before punching her in the arm. 

“Don't love her too much, she's still my girlfriend.”

“I don't know, she did take me out on a date today.” Dahyun sticks her tongue out before they both walk inside, and head to the couch. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The doorbell rings, and Dahyun gets up from the kitchen table where she’s been working on one of the projects. She has Nayeon and Jeongyeon setting up the materials for the other project while she works. 

“Wow, the food got here pretty quickly. Even though we ordered so much.” She shoots a glare at her cousin, who insisted they buy enough to feed at least 5 people. When she had asked why, her cousin had just laughed and said “Nayeon eats a lot.” Which Nayeon, of course, hit her for, immediately denying it.

Dahyun opened up the door, not even having enough time to get a good look at who was at the door before she was attacked, wrapped up in two sets of arms. She nearly fell over but the arms kept her stable enough, while she was being told “It’s okay.” and “We love you.” and “We’re here to help, unnie.” Eventually Dahyun gained enough sense to push them off. 

“What are you doing here?” She said, extremely confused at her two best friends just standing in her entryway with . . . backpacks on? “Are you here to . . . do work? I don’t remember making plans?” Chaeyoung just smiles at her, her dimples showing, as she walks inside.

“Jeongyeon called us. She asked us to help with some projects of yours.” Tzuyu says, grabbing Dahyun’s hand and leading her back into the apartment. Chaeyoung is hugging Jeongyeon since she hasn’t seen her in awhile, and her cousin quickly beckons the two of them to join the hug as well. They happily join in, pulling Nayeon into it as well.

Dahyun pulls away after about a minute, “I’m happy you’re here, but you don’t need to be. I can do it on my own.” 

“We know you can, but we want to help you because we love you. Please let us help you.” Chaeyoung gives Dahyun the cutest puppy eyes, so she sighs and gives in. She won’t admit it, but she’s glad they’re here to help her. When everyone is separated, Dahyun notices an odd tension before Nayeon speaks up. 

“Chou Tzuyu?” 

“Im Nayeon?” 

Everyone else in the room looks at them thoroughly confused. The two seem to be staring at each other, trying to figure something out without asking any questions.

“You two know each other?” Chaeyoung says, gesturing between them. Dahyun and Jeongyeon both tilt their heads, as confused and curious as Chaeyoung is. “OH! Wait! I forgot Tzuyu is a noble.” 

“Oh yeah, you are! Huh. You never mention it, so I forgot.” Dahyun walks over to the table in the kitchen to set up the rest of the workspace, “Have the two of you met before?” 

“Yeah,” Nayeon lightly laughs, “small world. We’ve seen each other at a few parties. Only a few though.”

“I only go to things if I have to.” Tzuyu says nonchalantly, putting her stuff down and pulling out her laptop.

“So that’s why I didn't see you at the last party, you missed out though. The princess disappeared for like half an hour and when she came back she was all sulky, but no one knows why.” Nayeon finished her sentence on an odd note, with a stiff silence, like there was some sort of hidden question she wanted the answer to.

“It’s okay, you can ask.” 

“Oh good!” Nayeon sits next to Tzuyu at the table and props her elbows up. “Do you know why?” 

“Why would she know why.” Jeongyeon butts in. “She doesn’t even know the princess.” 

“Yes she does.” Nayeon waves off Jeongyeon’s question. Everyone else does a double take, gaping at Tzuyu. “Did you not tell them? She hangs out with them at parties.” 

Tzuyu looks down, her face tinged red. “Well, it wasn't really important or anything-”

“YOU HANG OUT WITH THE PRINCESS?!?!?!” Dubchaeng yell in unison. 

“It’s not like that! I just saw them at events when I moved here and they sort of brought me along to stuff when they saw I was alone. I really only hang out with them when Elkie’s not around.”

“Elkie? Who's Elkie? Tzuyu, it's like we don't even know you anymore” Chaeyoung throws herself into Dahyun’s arms and they both pretend to sob.

“Unniesssss! It's not funnyyyyy! I have other friends too!” Tzuyu sits up and pouts at them.

“Our little Tzuyu, all grown up” Dahyun cries, pretending to wipe tears. Tzuyu slumps in her seat and crosses her arms, which is when Dubchaeng both wrap her in a hug and coo at her. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dahyun is buried in papers typing away, the room filled with the sound of various keys being pressed and pencils sketching down notes. She’s in the middle of scanning a book page with her finger when someone snatches it out of her hands and puts a plate in front of her. 

“Dahyun. Eat.” Chaeyoung says firmly. When did she get up? Dahyun felt like she would have heard that.

“I-I can’t Chae. I need to finish this-” Dahyun reaches for the book, but is oddly too weak to pull it out of her friend’s hands. 

“I don’t care. What are you doing? Is it something I can do?” 

“Well, I don’t know. It’s just-”

“Dahyun.” Chaeyoung seems to stare into her very soul. “Can one of us do it?” 

Dahyun pauses and sighs. “Yes, I would just need to check over it.”

“Great.” Chaeyoung claps her hands together. “Who volunteers?”

“I'm still working on the slide part with Nayeon, we’re like two thirds of the way done.” Jeongyeon says from over on the couch, where the two of them decided to work so that the kids could use the table together and share their work.

“I can do it, my eyes are tired of proof-reading.” Tzuyu says, rubbing her eyes and stretching.

“Fantastic,” Chaeyoung turns to Dahyun. “Start eating. I’ll proof-read and make sure the slides match. Hand your work so far to Tzuyu, and don’t even think about doing anything but eating right now.” 

“What? No, I have to do something!” She pinches the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache coming. 

“Let her help us with the slides Chaeyoung, we need our work to be proofed anyways.” Nayeon says, “I haven’t been to school in forever, I’m not sure that I’m doing it right.”

Chaeyoung thinks for a second, staying silent. “Fine, if you need someone to check. Just dont work her too hard.” 

“Dahyunnie come here.” Nayeon calls her over and pats her lap. Dahyun takes her plate and sits on Nayeon's lap while reading their work so far and correcting here and there. It starts to feel hot though, so she turns on the aircon after a little bit. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dahyun wakes up to a cold hand on her forehead and groans. She's so sleepy, and her throat feels super dry. She sits up and rubs her eyes, but she's squinting because the light is too bright. She hears someone talking but she's too tired to understand. 

“Wait.” Her voice comes out as a hoarse whisper. “The assignment.”

“Dahyun, we finished it. You just need to proof-read tomorrow. It's all done.” Jeongyeon says helping Dahyun up from the couch. Her eyes are mostly shut and she lets out a yawn.

“What about-” She starts, before being interrupted by Nayeon.

“It’s done too, everything is done. Chaeyoung and Tzuyu just left, they didn’t want to wake you.” Nayeon and Jeongyeon both put an arm around her and lead her to her bed. Nayeon tucks her in while Jeongyeon leaves a glass of water beside her bed. The last thing Dahyun remembers before passing out is the two of them kissing her forehead and saying goodnight before turning off the lights and leaving.


	9. Chapter 9

TW // alcohol , drinking , fever , sick

“Sana come on, what are you so grumpy for? This is literally your party.” Momo said, pulling the princess towards the bar. She really wasn’t in the mood to drink but seeing as the party had started several hours ago and there was still no sign of coffee girl, what else was there to do. 

“I’m surprised you aren’t hitting on the short-haired brunette over there.” Momo continued, referred to the girl who showed up to cater instead of her coffee girl. It’s not that the girl wasn’t cute, Sana just couldn’t get coffee girl out of her head.

“It’d be a good distraction, I’m just not in the mood.” Sana shrugged it off. Momo looked a little shocked but Sana knew that was because she was ‘always’ in the mood to flirt. She rolled her eyes at her friend, “Plus Mina is clearly interested in her. I mean really, who goes to talk to a cafe employee ‘just to ask the recipe’ for some dumb crossaint, she’s clearly going to flirt.” 

“Good point, but Mina’s never exactly been subtle.” They both laugh, until they’re interrupted by Momo’s phone ringing. “It’s my dad, I’ll be right back. He’s probably checking in on your safety or whatever.” 

“Oh, you definitely shouldn't leave me alone then. It might be unsafe.” She teased her. Momo’s dad was her father’s royal advisor, so when her dad had to go on ambassador trips Momo’s father went with him. It’s actually the reason Momo and her became friends in the first place, their dad’s were basically best friends since they were teens and they encouraged their daughters to be friends as well. She watched Momo walk away, probably heading into the gardens to take the call. It was always too loud in the ballroom to hear anyone on the phone, and you also never knew who was listening in just in case it was something private. 

Sana was trying her very best not to look super bored while sitting at the bar, as much as she was in a bad mood she didn’t want anyone else to know. The last time that she got upset because of coffee girl, a bunch of rumors started spreading around about who ‘broke the princesses heart’ and she didn’t want a repeat of said ‘scandals’. She’d gotten an earful from her mother about that and did not want a repeat of those events, the kingdom was too interested in her for her own liking. None of the rumors were about her liking boys and girls though, no one cared about that in this kingdom, but the people in general were always curious about who might share Sana’s future throne. So obviously, they kept a close watch on her dating life. 

“Sooyoung.” She called the bartender over, she needed a distraction in the form of a drink. 

“Your highness, I told you to call me Yves.” Sooyoung smiled at her, already starting to prep her drink. Sana had her favorites after all, and Sooyoung had them all memorized. 

“And I told you that a fancy nickname isn’t going to make you more popular with the ladies.” Sana teased the bartender, whose cheeks had reddened. She knew Sooyoung only wanted a nickname because the girl she was interested in had one. They both went silent, lost in their thoughts, while Sooyoung got the drink ready. Sana was already back to thinking about coffee girl and she was beyond frustrated with how much she cared about her, she never catches feelings this fast. She’s pretty sure that coffee girl hates her actually, which is why she's teasing Sooyoung. At least Jiwoo likes Sooyoung, so she has a chance. Sana might as well be pursuing a brick wall with how well their encounters have gone. 

“You know, Jiwoo already likes you. You just need to be confident enough to hit on her without embarrassing yourself.” She said once Sooyoung had handed her the drink. The bartender laughed at the advice. 

“Says the girl who got wasted after one rejection. How's that going for you by the way?” 

Sana rolled her eyes, ignoring the tease, but looked away. She was still slightly embarrassed at overreacting about it. Coffee girl was just that amazing, the princess couldn’t help but be a little bit upset and offended at the rejection. If only she could just see coffee girl again, she’d clear everything up. 

It was at that moment, as she was looking at the crowd around her thinking about what she’d say to coffee girl if she had a chance, that she nearly dropped her drink. 

“Impossible.” The princess almost yells, so shocked at who she sees that she can’t contain her voice. Ignoring everyone who just heard her, including Sooyoung who is giving her a look, she only focuses on one person now.

In the direction of the front door, a girl was walking around in these god awful plaid yellow pajama pants and an oversized shirt. Her hair was disheveled and she looked so confused, not to mention she was stumbling a little bit. Was she . . . sick? Why was she here? Is she going to be okay? Sana looked at the people near the girl, but she didn’t see anyone who looked like they were with her. 

“I have to take care of her.” Sana said, extremely concerned; she had to stop herself from leaping out of her seat to chase after coffee girl. Luckily no one was close enough to hear exactly what she said, aside from Sooyoung, but she trusted her to stay quiet. She’d confided many things in the bartender over the years, but she managed to keep every secret. 

“Who are you talking about? Sana is everything okay?” The bartender put a hand on Sana’s arm, when the princess turned she saw the look of concern on her friend's face. She wanted to explain so Sooyoung wouldn’t worry, but she feared that if she didn't chase after coffee girl now then she’d never see her again.

“Well, uh, the . . . '' Sana turned back to where coffee girl was and could see that the girl was just about to head straight into a crowd. Sana stood so abruptly that everyone in the area turned to look at her, she wasn’t paying attention though. All that mattered to her right now was that coffee girl was okay. She turned back to Sooyoung, “When Momo comes back, tell her I got an important call and that I’ll explain it to her later. Also I was serious before, just talk to Jiwoo. She really likes you.” Sana quickly turns and heads in the direction she last saw coffee girl, hoping she wasn’t already lost in the crowd. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dahyun jolted up in a cold sweat, coughing loudly. She puts a fist up to her mouth for cover, much like coughing into a microphone. Once the fit is over she reaches to the dresser by her bed, its pitch black so she can barely even see shapes, but she manages to find the glass of water. When she takes a sip, she realizes how warm the water is. Her throat is parched and she really wants cold water, so she unhappily throws the covers off. She shivers at the chill in the air, making her way to the kitchen, bumping into the wall a few times and stumbling.

When she gets to the kitchen table, more tired than she thought she’d be, she looks outside the window at the cars and streets lit up. It seems that she’s not the only one up, but she's probably the only one that doesn't want to be. She feels wrong and a little gross, she might be sick but she doesn't have time to be. When she turns on the kitchen light, she notices a pile of slightly marked up papers on the table. Dahyun blinks at it for a second, trying to figure out whose it is. 

“Wait-” She hoarsely whispers to the silence of her apartment. It’s the essay that Chaeyoung was working on today, what did she say about it? It was due soon right? Was it in two days or tomorrow? Dahyun thinks she said it’s due tomorrow, she looks at the clock and sees its past midnight, or rather it’s due today. Wait - if it’s due today then she has to get it to her, Chaeyoung doesn’t get as stressed about school as she does but that doesn’t mean she likes turning things in late. She walks towards the sink and washes her face in cold water before heading back to her room to change into something she can wear outside. She checks the snap app, Chaeyoung always has her location on ‘just in case’. Dahyun never really understood it, but it’s been helpful for times like now so she’s not complaining. 

“That’s weird.” She mutters, it says Chaeyoung’s at the castle. Maybe there was another event? Dahyun assumed that she would’ve been the one being sent there though, since she’s already been. It doesn't matter. Chaeyoung is there and that's where she needs to go. She rubs her eyes, almost tripping in the entryway when she slips on a pair of sneakers. She barely remembers to grab her house keys on the way out, let alone locking the door behind her.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Why was it so hot? Dahyun wiped her forehead and flapped the collar of her shirt, it was the middle of the night. It shouldn’t be this hot. 

Well it's fine, she just needs to make it to Chaeyoung, and give her the essay she left and then she could- 

She could just- 

Dahyun stumbles into the brick wall, leaning against it for support. She wants to just lie down, but she's come this far, she just has a few minutes longer and then she can go home. Or maybe she’ll just crash with Chaeyoung. She should’ve taken some medicine before leaving home, now she’ll just have to pull through. 

Dahyun closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose, continuing to walk, she keeps a hand on the wall beside her. When she opens them again, she’s at the gates of the castle. She rubs her eyes and stops for a second, trying not to fall. She just needs to give Chaeyoung the paper. The paper in her hands. Where’s the paper? Did she drop it? Did she even leave the house with it? She shakes her head, she can’t go back and look right now, she has to find Chaeyoung. She slowly approaches the front door, rubbing the goosebumps on her arms.

It’s so hot, and the marble floor looks so cool, she thinks as she enters the foyer. She really just wants to lie down, but that would probably be rude. She stumbles into a familiar ballroom, there's so many people. Why is there so many people? There’s just so, so many people. Too many people. She grimaces at a sudden headache. Maybe Chaeyoung is somewhere in all the people. She tries to walk into a crowd to search, but she feels a little unstable. 

Dahyun feels her legs give out from under her, but she doesn't collapse, she’s being held up by someone. 

“Hot.” Dahyun says, grimacing at how bright the lights in the room are. She looks up at the girl holding her, why does she look so sad? Dahyun puts a hand on her cheek, trying to comfort her. The girl's face is so cold that Dahyun leans against her, hoping to cool down. The girl smells like summer, and the specific scent is familiar to her but she can’t remember how or why. 

The girl squeaks out, “H-hot?” 

Dahyun hears the girl say something about a fever, and leaving. She realizes they’ve started walking, so she tries to explain while being practically lifted. She just can't seem to get more than one word out, so she tries to sum it all up.

“Chaeyoung.” Is all Dahyun says, hoping the girl knows what she means. The girl just nods and helps Dahyun stumble to a room that seems familiar. She closes her eyes.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sana smiles at the girl nearly passed out in her bed, happy to stare at her all she wants. She wrings out the towel and wipes the girls face again, she definitely has a fever and Sana wonders how long she’s been sick or why she even came at all. A small part of her hopes the girl came to see her. She brushes the blue hair out of the girl's face, she knows she didn’t though. She wouldn’t come see someone she hates so much. Sana thinks she should probably go look for this ‘Chaeyoung’ that coffee girl was looking for. It annoys her for some reason that coffee girl was thinking about anyone but her, but she knew it wasn't her place to be jealous. Nor was it her place to take care of the girl while she’s sick, no matter how much she wants to just baby her and protect her.

Sana stands to go search, hoping she’ll find a maid to help coffee girl while she looks around, but a hand wraps around her finger before she can leave the bed. Sana freezes, she thought the girl was asleep, how long has she been awake? The princess slowly turns to see the girl looking at her with the cutest puppy eyes.

“D-don’t go.” The girl’s weak voice fills the deafening silence. Sana can feel her heart threaten to beat right out of her chest. She almost melts on the spot, quickly sitting back down and holding the girls hand in hers. 

“I won’t. I’d never leave you.” Why she’s promising such a thing to a girl who clearly wants nothing to do with her, she doesn't know. But she does know that she means every word. As long as the girl wants her by her side, she won't leave her. Ever. “Are you feeling any better?” 

“It’s hot.” The girl whines. Sana quickly takes the towel off of the girl’s forehead, assuming she means the towel is too hot. Before she can withdraw it to put it back in cold water, the girl grabs her hand and holds it against her cheek, sighing. Sana has never been so grateful for cold hands before. But she can't get distracted! Not even when the girl leans into her touch. Okay actually she’s allowed to get a little distracted. She smiles as she lightly pinches the girl’s cheek. 

“If I bring you some medicine, will you take it?” Sana is reluctant to pull her hand away from the girl, but she has to take care of her. The girl nods into her hand, however, the moment she starts to pull away, the girl protests with a series of whines and ‘stay!’ It’s kind of cute, but as cute as it is she needs to take care of her. Sana walks to the bathroom and gets some fever medication out of her cabinet, filling a glass up with water. Hopefully the girl can take pills. When she looks in the mirror, she has to stop herself from turning into a giggling mess. She's worried about coffee girl, but she’s also happy that the girl isn’t running away from her for once. Plus she’s so cute while sick that Sana might melt. 

When she comes back to the bed, she helps the girl sit up and take the medication. Sana is burning with questions. How did you get here? Why are you here? Do you know who I am? Why did you run away? Do you like working in a cafe? Why don't you want me to leave? She decides to ask the one that she’s most curious about. 

“What’s your name?” She finally asks as she places the damp towel over the girl's forehead again. She’s almost vibrating with excitement, she’s wanted to know this for so long.

“Kim Dahyun.” The girl mumbles out, closing her eyes, grabbing one of Sana’s hands with her own and pulling it close to her. 

“Dahyun.” Sana whispers, smiling as if she just discovered the eighth wonder of the world. She decides to push her luck a little bit and ask another question. “Dahyun, how did you get here?” Sana was worried that she might've driven, she was clearly sick and most likely here alone so if she had driven here Sana would’ve been extremely concerned about how that went. 

“I walked.” Oh, well that definitely made her feel slightly better. Maybe she lived in the area or something. She still shouldn’t have been outside though, especially so late at night. Dahyun might have been an adult who could take care of herself, but the princess was still worried. The girl was basically cuddling Sana’s hand to her face, how could she not want to protect her from everything bad in the world?

“Was it far?” She was hoping to hear a no, but the girl just made a humming noise in response. The princess thought to herself for a second. It’d be better if she went to go look for this ‘Chaeyoung’ so that Dahyun could go home and rest, but she also wanted to be selfish and keep Dahyun to herself for a little longer. If Dahyun stayed here, then Sana could make sure that she was taken care of until she felt better. But she might feel safer in a familiar environment, and that could help her recovery. She weighed the pros and cons before sighing heavily. She shouldn’t keep her here, she’d be taking advantage of the fact that Dahyun is too sick to think rationally.

“Dahyun? I’m going to go look for Chaeyoung now, okay?” She tried to pull her hand away from Dahyun’s grasp, but the girl groaned and rolled over, pulling Sana with her. Said princess fell onto the bed, and gave Dahyun a look that wasn’t too far off from a glare. She quickly melted, though, when she saw the triumphant smile on the girl’s face for having made Sana stay. If her friends were here they’d both tell her she was whipped. 

Sana decided that she was allowed to be a little bit selfish, so she settled on the bed next to Dahyun. She made sure not to touch her aside from the arm that Dahyun currently held hostage, she didn’t want to overstep any boundaries. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and called her cousin; Momo would likely be busy calling her dad right now, but Mina should be fine to call. She admired Dahyun’s side profile while the phone rang. 

“Hello? What do you want? I'm busy.” Mina harshly whispered to her. She was probably still flirting with that employee. What was up with the royals and employees from Sunset Pastries? Sana needed to figure that out later. Was one of the qualities they looked for attractive to royalty or something?

“I need my favorite cousin to do me a huge favor.” She paused, waiting for Mina to say something. When her cousin stayed silent she continued, hoping that Mina was actually listening and hadn’t just set the phone on a table and walked away. It wouldn’t be the first time. “I need you to find a girl named Chaeyoung for me. I don’t know if she's a noble or a-” 

“Chaeyoung??” Her cousin almost yelled into the phone. Sana pulled it away from her ear and made a face.

“Yes, Chaeyoung. Why? Do you know her or something?” She looked down at Dahyun, it was unlikely that Mina knew Chaeyoung. Otherwise wouldn’t she have known about Dahyun before and mentioned her? Well, to be fair, Sana hadn’t exactly said who her crush was. 

Her lips curled into a soft smile when Dahyun shifted to lay on her. She was so mesmerized by the girl cuddling her, that she had forgotten her cousin was on the line until she spoke again and made the princess jump a little.

“What’s this about? Why do you need her? Aren’t you still hung up on that girl from the cafe or whatever?” 

“I’m not ‘hung up’ on anybody first of all, and second of all she’s why I need to find her. The girl I was talking about is here with me right now and she’s looking for a girl named Chaeyoung, so I’m assuming Chaeyoung is here somewhere. Probably at the party.” She rolled her eyes. Why did Mina even care so much about this Chaeyoung girl. She heard an unfamiliar voice mumbling on the other line before Mina spoke again.

“Where are you right now?”

“My room, but it’s not what you think.” She tried to defend herself, this was why she didn’t call Momo. Her friend would’ve definitely teased her to no end about it. 

“We’ll be there in a few.”

“We?” She never got an answer though, because Mina hung up right after. There’s no way Mina found her that fast, she hadn’t even gotten off the line. Unless Chaeyoung was the Sunset Pastries employee? Actually that would make a lot of sense, Dahyun would already know her so she’d be safe with her. Dahyun mumbled something random to Sana and she pulled the princess closer to her, Sana was probably going to get sick but she didn't care. She just hoped that Mina and Chaeyoung took their sweet time getting here, she wanted to keep this moment in her memory forever. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Fuck.” Dahyun rubs her eyes and stretches, she wants to sleep longer but she can’t because it's daylight outside. She reaches over to her dresser and grabs her glasses, very groggy and not ready to start the morning at all. She does notice that she feels slightly better, as she walks to the bathroom and doesn’t almost fall over. She tries to remember what happened yesterday while she washes her face and brushes her teeth. 

She went to the mall with Nayeon and Jeongyeon, she came home and they helped her work on some assignments. Oh yeah she’s going to have to double check those, oh but it's probably fine since Chaeyoung and Tzuyu came over and helped too. And then she remembers going to bed, and she got up again after? She stares hard at herself in the mirror trying to figure out why she got up so late at night. Something to do with Chaeyoung? Maybe she went over and Chaeyoung took care of her? Or she called her to come over maybe? Damn she can’t remember, it’s probably fine. Clearly she’s safe now, so she doesn’t think anything too important happened. 

A buzzing from her pocket starts to bug her so she pulls out her phone to shut it off when she freezes. Her lips part as she whispers, “No.” Her face turns stoic as she heads to the kitchen and throws her phone onto the couch, away from her, so she can focus on anything else.

From: XXX-XXXX  
3:21: Hi, I hope your feeling better.

3:21: *You’re

3:23: You seemed sick last night so I hope you’re home safe.

4:00: You’re probably asleep, sorry if my texts wake you up.

4:05: Oh right! I should introduce myself, sorry.

4:07: This is the girl from the castle? We’ve met a few times.

4:08: I have pink hair, if that helps. 

4:15: I’m going to sleep now! Goodnight! Sleep well Dahyun! ^-^

Dahyun was NOT going to fucking deal with that right now.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At least Dahyun thought she wasn’t going to deal with it. She doesn’t know why she didn't just block the number, she knew exactly who it was and why they were texting. It frustrated her to no end that she didn’t know how the girl knew her name, or knew that she was sick. Was she missing something from last night? 

“Ugh, stop thinking about it.” She groaned at herself, trying to focus on the tv show playing in front of her. She couldn’t stop herself from glancing at her phone every other minute though. The girl hadn’t texted again, and for some reason that made Dahyun even more mad at her. First this dumb noble goes through all the trouble to get her number and then what? She doesn't text her? Why get her number in the first place then! 

She starts typing out a very passive aggressive text, when she sees that the girl is typing. She quickly deletes her message, hoping the girl didn’t see.

From: XXX-XXXX

10:02: I just woke up, are you feeling any better?

Dahyun waits for the girl to start typing again, but she doesn’t. 

From: Kim Dahyun

10:04: Delete my number.

From: XXX-XXXX

10:06: Why didn’t you just block me?

Dahyun huffs and starts chewing on her bottom lip, fully focused on her phone now. 

From: Kim Dahyun

10:08: None of your business now go away or I will block you. 

From: Annoyance

10:11: Hate me all you want, but are you feeling better?

Hey, wait a minute. 

Dahyun doesn’t hate her, so why did she say that? Mystery girl is just . . . frustrating and confusing. But she doesn’t hate her or anything. Damn it, why is she even getting so worked up about this. She should’ve just blocked her. She should block her now. 

From: Kim Dahyun

11:27: I never said I hate you, but you’re really fucking annoying because you won’t leave me alone. You followed me and cornered me the first time we met, then you went to where I work looking for me. Now you have my number too? How did you even know I was sick?! Actually, I don’t care how you know. Just leave me alone, you seem like a stalker. I don’t care how fucking noble you are, I’m not afraid of you. Do NOT contact me again or else. 

She pinches the bridge of her nose and calls one of her other contacts. She really needs to just rant about this. She tries to stop fuming while she waits for Chaeyoung to pick up her phone.

“Dahyun? How are you feeling?” 

“Better, can I vent to you for a second?” 

“Yeah, sure. What’s going on? You sound mad.” Of course she sounds mad, she IS mad.

“There’s this girl right? I met her when I was catering at the castle. She sort of . . . cornered me and tried flirting. But she was clearly a noble and I didn’t want to get into trouble so I ran away. I thought the whole thing was over with, but then she showed up a few days later at the shop and was apparently looking for me right? So I got scared and Jihyo helped me out and I thought I wouldn’t see her again after that.” Dahyun’s head is buzzing just thinking about everything and how weird it all is. She’s waiting for Chaeyoung to say something.

“That sounds really scary honestly, are you okay? If that happened a few days ago then what made you so upset about it now?”

“She just texted me. Apparently she fucking got my number somehow and she also knew that I was sick. So I told her off and hopefully she leaves me alone now.” Dahyun inhales hoping that she feels better after venting, but for some reason she doesn’t. She didn’t even feel better after sending that text that the girl read but didn’t respond to. 

“Umm . . . unnie? Don’t be mad please.” Mad? What is Chaeyoung talking about? Why would she be mad at her?

“What do you mean?” 

“Does this girl have . . . pink hair?” Dahyun feels her body tense.

“Yes, how do you know that Chaeyoung.” Her voice sounds calm, but it’s the calm before a storm. A silent anger is brewing within her. 

“Well uh, do you remember what happened last night?” Last night?

“No, but what does that have to do with this?” She wouldn’t have gone to see the girl. That was obvious. Right? Dahyun suddenly wasn’t so sure. 

“Well, yesterday you apparently came to give me a paper that I’d left at your place so you came to the castle. I was working at a party and didn’t even know you were there until the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen got a call and told me to follow her. You were there with a pink haired girl and she asked for your number to make sure you were okay. I gave it to her because she was the one who had been taking care of you at the castle.” 

Oh.

“Oh.” Dahyun, dazed, hung up the phone. She felt her heart sink, but she didn’t want to apologize. She decided to focus on other things for now and talk to the girl again later, when she was in the right mindset.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hell yeah saida! Finally fun plot. im in school again so the next chapters might be slow but i should be more motivated to write since we have reached the cute part of the fic.


	10. Chap 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors note: haha hi, it has been a really long time. I didn’t want to be one of those authors that just disappears, or has to take a break from writing at all. But the universe said no. I’m really sorry for taking so long, I think it’s been 5 months or more? Sorry for not saying anything, it’s just been hard. Anyways here is a chapter I think you guys will like, as an apology. Hopefully I'll be more motivated to write now. Love y’all ^-^

Sana checks her watch for the third time. It’s still 6:42, but the shop doesn’t open until 8 and none of the workers even start getting here until 7. Sana knows because she’s been coming early in the morning for the past week, ever since she stupidly asked Jihyo, who she has since learned is the manager, about Dahyun. Dahyun, she smiles a little, just thinking of her name. She imagines saying it out loud, calling out to the girl. 

Well actually, she might not have to imagine much longer. Dahyun is walking towards the shop, where Sana sits at one of the outside tables. Since she started coming here, she would do boring paperwork, sit on the patio, and wait for the shop to open. Well it’s on her laptop so it’s not exactly paperwork, but either way, it’s all just tedious things that are safe for her to do out in the open. She was ready for it to be another routine day, but when she stretched a few minutes ago she saw familiar blue hair heading her way. It’s a long street so she had to squint to make sure it was the same girl that hasn’t left her mind. 

It was funny actually, because Sana knew that the same moment she recognized Dahyun, Dahyun had also seen her. She knew this because Dahyun had frozen in her tracks and just stared for a minute. Sana had pretended to go back to her work at the time, and when she had looked back up Dahyun was, again, walking towards her. The princess had since been pretending to work while looking up and checking her watch from time to time. She didn't understand why Dahyun was even here twenty minutes early, is she a model employee or something? Does she normally open the cafe? She stares at her computer screen, brows furrowed, deep in thought. When she looks back up, Dahyun is standing right in front of her. Staring at her almost as intensely as Sana was just staring at her laptop. 

Sana, of course, goes bright red and a little wide-eyed at the girl suddenly in front of her. Dahyun doesn’t say anything, or even seem to register that Sana noticed her. She just keeps staring, as if trying to figure something out about her. Sana shifts uncomfortably and clears her throat, which is when Dahyun shakes her head slightly and looks like a deer in headlights upon realizing she’s been caught. Sana almost giggles at how the girls cheeks tinge red, but she holds it in. She doesn’t want to mess this chance up. 

She tries to think about what she could say to the girl. ‘I wanted to apologize to you’ ‘How are you feeling?’ ‘Why were you staring at me?’ ‘Why are you here so early?’ ‘Are you as happy to see me again, as I am happy to see you?’ ‘Did you mean it when you said you didn’t want me to contact you again?’ But before she could even start to decide on what to say. Dahyun places a hand on the table, not quite banging but making enough noise to focus her attention. Sana looks back up and sees the girl gesture for her to follow, before heading towards the cafe doors. 

Sana grabs her laptop and bag before following Dahyun to the door. She’s worried at first that Dahyun doesn’t actually have a key, but then the doors are open and she follows her inside. She sets down her things at her favorite table, waiting for Dahyun to say something. Instead Dahyun puts her backpack on the table and heads to the back, going through the employees only door. Sana sighs, slumping into her seat. She should’ve said something. Why would Dahyun just let her in here if she wasn’t going to say anything to her? Clearly she was supposed to do the talking or something. But she didn’t know what she was supposed to talk about. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The princess finished setting up her laptop and papers, having just started proofreading something, when Dahyun sets down a cup. 

“What’s this for?” Sana asks, extremely confused. Dahyun doesn’t make eye contact and has a hand on the back of her neck.

“It’s an iced coffee right? That’s what you ordered last time.” Dahyun moves to sit down across from Sana.

“You remembered?” The princess whispers in disbelief. Dahyun still avoided eye contact. 

“It was hard to forget.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” There’s a heavy silence between the two for a few minutes as Dahyun finishes getting stuff out of her bag. “Do you go to school?” 

“Yeah, I’m in university.” More silence. “I’m a Korean literature major.”

“You must like reading then, huh?” Sana jumps at the chance to learn more about Dahyun.

“I do, but I'm not going to tell you what kind of books I like if that’s what you’re thinking.” Dahyun finally looks up at Sana and flashes her a smile. Sana almost swoons, but she holds it in.

“That’s what you think. I can be very persuasive, I’ll have you know.” Sana cocks a brow and puts a hand under her chin.

“Your charms haven’t worked on me yet.”

“If that’s true then why are you sitting here with me right now?” Sana says with a smirk. Dahyun’s face falls, and Sana’s quickly does as well. Turning into a look of concern for the younger girl. She watches Dahyun take what looks to be a shaky breath, before the girl brings a fist up to her chin, leaning on it as she stares out the front window. 

“Why this table?” Dahyun says while staring at someone across the street walking their dog. Sana is caught off guard by Dahyun’s sudden question, and she can tell that’s not really what Dahyun wanted to ask. But that’s okay with her, she’s too scared to talk about the other thing just yet.

“I don’t really know. It just seemed like a good place to sit. Nice view.”

“They all have a nice view, it’s the same view. So why this table?” Dahyun asks again, insistent but not upset. 

“I honestly don’t know. I just like it for some reason.” Sana really isn’t sure what to say. What’s so special about this table? Her brows furrow, and she tries to study Dahyun’s face. She’s caught off guard again when Dahyun suddenly turns to look her in the eyes, and for a second Sana thought she saw something there. Vulnerability. But just as soon as she sees it, it’s gone. 

“I . . . wanted to apologize to you.” Dahyun looks down and takes a breath. Her fingers tapping her thighs under the table. “I was . . . uh . . . very rude to you when you texted me, at the time I didn’t know that you had taken care of me when I was sick.” Dahyun pauses for a moment, and Sana decides not to say anything until she’s sure Dahyun is done talking. “I also wanted to thank you. You didn’t have to take care of me, or make sure that I got home safe. So, thank you.” Dahyun stands up and bows at the girl before sitting back down. Her hands are on the table, messing with the page of a book that she took out of her bag.

“It’s okay.” Sana reaches across the table and puts a hand on Dahyuns, getting the girl to look up at her. “I forgive you, I see now how my behavior might have upset or confused you. I’m sorry as well. It was . . . wrong of me to try and find you the way that I did, and I’m so sorry. Also you’re welcome, for taking care of you. But you don’t need to thank me for that, because I would do it again in a heartbeat, no questions asked.” She had to hold herself in from squeezing Dahyun’s cheeks when the girl started to go red. 

“It’s okay.” Dahyun said, looking at Sana’s hand on top of hers. Before quickly withdrawing it and looking anywhere but at Sana. “Well, that’s it. I apologized and said thank you. You don’t have to keep coming to the cafe every day. Since you’re a noble, there are probably much better places for you to get coffee and do whatever it is that you do here.”

“Paperwork.” Sana said, pulling back her hand, slightly amused.

“Yeah, sure. Drink coffee and do paperwork.” She fans herself a bit, her cheeks still heated. “Anyways, what I’m trying to say is that you can stop flirting with me now. I’m just a commoner so flirting with me isn’t going to get you any closer to the royal family, and I don't do one night stands either. So if you’re going to flirt with someone I suggest trying the princess, she’s much more ‘in your league’.” Dahyun opens one of the books next to her and pretends to start scanning it. Sana sits there in shock for a second before bursting out in a fit of laughter. 

“Hey! What’s so funny!” Dahyun says, sitting up more. Her face heating up a little, confused and embarrassed. 

“Y-you!” Sana struggles to continue, laughing so hard her sides hurt, and they both wait a minute before the princess can get a hold of herself and finally say more than one word. When she’s composed she takes a deep breath and wipes away some tears. “Wow, I haven’t laughed that hard in awhile.” She stops, thinking about how she wants to continue. “Would you change your opinion on flirting if I was a commoner?” She puts on a bit of an ‘i’ve got you right where i want you’ smile.

Dahyun, taken aback, stutters, “I - I don’t - I don't know. I - maybe? Wait! It doesn’t matter because you’re clearly not a commoner.” She makes a little ‘hmph’ and smiles at her supposed win. Sana takes a sip of her coffee. 

“What if I was the princess.” She casually says, shrugging. Dahyun laughs and gives her a look. 

“I’m not even going to entertain that, it’s almost impossible.” 

“Oh really? Maybe you’re right, but I’m still curious. What if I was? What would that change?” Sana looks at her, a glint in her eyes but trying to keep a straight face. 

“Nothing, because it's impossible.” Dahyun gave her another look. Sana tried to hold in her laughter and put on her best puppy dog eyes.

“Please~ I’m so curious.” 

Dahyun seemed to think for a minute, debating it. “Fine, but the answer is that it probably wouldn’t change much. Princess or not, you’re out of my league.” Dahyun puts a hand under her chin, seeming to be seriously thinking about it. “Plus the princess has like suitors and stuff, why would she want my attention?” 

“So you think I'm cute?” Sana says, lifting her brows.

“I - What?” Dahyun sputters, “Who said that?!” 

“You did, if i'm out of your league then you must think i'm cute.” 

“I mean from an objective perspective you’re very cute, but that doesn't mean that I think you're cute.” Dahyun emphasized the I, trying desperately to defend herself.

“Oh so you think I'm very cute then. I see, how dare I assume you thought I was just cute. My apologies” Sana crosses her arms and nods with her head facing down. Pretending to be extremely serious about this matter. When Dahyun says nothing, Sana looks back up to see the girl red in the face. Dahyun abruptly stands and squeaks out that she’s going to finish opening shop and Sana can leave any time. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dahyun was surprised that the girl hadn’t left the cafe yet, she really thought that the noble would’ve moved on after everything between them was settled. See, Dahyun originally wasn’t going to forgive the girl, she had still been mad after calling Chaeyoung and finding out about the whole ‘being taken care of when she was sick’ situation. She was planning on staying mad and just never talking to the girl again, but then the girl texted her a really long and clearly heartfelt apology message. It just meant a lot to Dahyun, and so she figured she wasn’t mad anymore but she wouldn’t say anything unless they met again. 

Of course, then they met again within a few days. Clearly fate wanted her to talk to the girl. Which was slightly annoying, but what about the girl wasn’t. She had found out from Jihyo that the girl had established a routine the past few days, but Dahyun was surprised she sat at that table. It was . . . quite the coincidence. 

After all, that was her favorite table. It was the one she got hired while sitting at, where she studied at all the time, where Jeongyeon had first told her about Nayeon, and where her friends would sit when they watched her work. It was just her table. So it’s interesting that the girl would choose to sit there out of all the other tables. 

Dahyun stares at the girls side profile, absentmindedly wiping the counter. She’s honestly gorgeous, and Dahyun doesn’t get why the girl seems like her so much. She’s just an average university student who works at a pastry shop. But while the girl is attractive, Dahyun doesn’t know anything about her. What her hobbies are, what she likes to eat, her favorite colors, favorite songs. Hell, Dahyun doesn’t even know her name yet. How does she not know the girl's name? 

She notices that the girl has almost run out of iced coffee, she should probably refill it for her. 

Huh. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sana is so focused on her work that she forgets she’s even in the coffee shop. She’s currently looking over a document from a neighboring kingdom talking about an alliance and working together for some issues they both have. Her father is trusting her to read over and research this, he told her that he wanted her to make the final decision. She knows that he just wants her to be ready for when she takes the throne, but it’s nerve-wracking having to make a decision that could impact the kingdom so much. She takes a deep breath, if she gets too worked up then she won’t be objective, she’ll be too nervous. She needs a clear head for this. 

She reaches over to drink some more of her iced coffee without looking, but finds that she's grabbing at air. She furrows her brows, still looking at her laptop, while feeling the air with her hand, trying to find the cup. She hears light laughter, the sound calms all her nerves immediately and she looks up to see Dahyun standing there laughing at her attempt to find her cup. Her cheeks tinge red, but she can't stop staring at Dahyun.

“Beautiful.” She whispers, barely audible. Dahyun turns to look at Sana, still smiling. Sana can feel the air being sucked out of her lungs, how is this girl so effortlessly beautiful? 

“Here, I was just going to switch them out but then you reached for the cup after I’d picked it up.” Dahyun hands her a new iced coffee, but they both hold onto it for a minute. Dahyun seems to be debating something, but once she lets go of the iced coffee she reaches into a pocket and pulls out a pen and napkin. 

Sana is wondering what Dahyun could be using it for, since they already have each other's numbers. She watches Dahyun write ‘on the house’ and underneath that ‘name’ with a blank line next to it. 

“Could you put your name on this? Sorry, it’s just company policy. Since your coffee is on the house today as an apology, I need to have a signature as proof that you’re a real person and I’m not just stealing the coffee for myself. Anyways, just sign it please. Thanks.” Dahyun hands Sana the pen. 

The princess thinks about it for a second. If she uses her full name, Dahyun will know she’s royalty. If she uses her normal signature, she’ll know. If she uses her first name only, she might know. But if she uses a sloppy signature that’s not actually hers, then there’s no way for Dahyun to know. Sana picks up the pen.

“Yeah, of course. I get it, here let me just-” She uses the sloppiest signature she can, and hands the napkin and pen back to Dahyun. The girl stares at it blankly for a second. Just blinking, almost in disbelief. “Is something wrong?” Sana wonders if Dahyun somehow realized Sana is royalty. Wouldn’t that be ironic, if she figured it out from a sloppy signature instead of from looking at the girl herself.

“Uh, sort of. Not really. I just, uh, need your name too. For business purposes. Obviously.” Dahyun is still staring intently at the signature. Sana realizes this might not be about the coffee. Does Dahyun want to know her name? Maybe she should test it, she might be projecting or something. She does want Dahyun to want to know more about her after all, she might be seeing things that aren't there.

“Are you sure? I’m sure your boss will understand if it’s just a signature.”

“No, I need your name too. I mean, the shop needs your name.” Dahyun slips up, and Sana realizes she’s right. Dahyun wants to know her name, but it's a risk and she's not going to give it out for free.

“Oh sure, I can put my name down.” She ends the sentence on an odd note, like there's more to be said. But she stays silent.

“O-oh? Yeah that would be great. Just put it under the signature if you can.” Dahyun tries to hand the napkin and pen to her, but Sana doesn't move. Dahyuns stands there awkwardly for a second, confused.

“I’ll sign it . . . if you promise to go on a date with me.” She leans back in the chair as she waits for Dahyun to respond. Said girl’s face has started to go red, but she hasn’t said no yet.

After a period of silence, the both of them just stare at each other while Dahyun thinks. Sana is about to give up when Dahyun takes a deep breath, “Okay. Sign it.”

“You mean - ?”

A sigh. “Yes, I’ll go on a date with you. Just sign it. I expect a full name in exchange though.” Sana smiles, she’s willing to do that. Plus if Dahyun hasn’t already figured out who she is, why would seeing her full name change that? At this point she could probably introduce Dahyun to the King and Queen while calling them her parents, and she still wouldn’t guess Sana’s the princess.

Sana happily writes her name on the napkin, and adds a heart. When she hands the napkin back to Dahyun, she winks at her. “I’ll text you about our date later.”

Dahyun blushes, “Are you leaving soon?” She sounds a little disappointed and Sana is hesitant to leave, but she does have things to do today that she can’t put off. 

“Yeah, I have to leave in like 20 minutes. I have an appointment with an ambassador- uh, I mean a model ambassador. Anyways I have to go to an important meeting that I can’t skip. Try not to miss me too much when I leave.” She blows a kiss at Dahyun, who smiles just barely before quickly pretending that didn’t affect her.

“I won’t miss you, why would you say that.” Her face is quickly turning red, saying the opposite. “Also stop flirting with me, I already told you it wasn’t going to get you anywhere.”

“Who said I was flirting with you?” Sana teases.

“I - You - Listen - ” Dahyun struggles to finish, or even start a sentence.

“I’m listening?” A smile sneaks onto her face, teasing Dahyun is just too much fun. She’s happy that they’re okay now. She was worried the girl wanted nothing to do with her before, but she can clearly see that’s not true now. Even if Dahyun denies it. 

“Just, come up to the counter so I can refill your ice coffee before you leave. You’ll probably need it by then, and you shouldn’t fall asleep during a meeting. It’s unprofessional.” Dahyun turns and walks away, and Sana’s glad she did because now she’s blushing. Does Dahyun like her? No, she shouldn’t get ahead of herself. But that was so sweet of Dahyun, she wants to just go up to the girl and wrap her up in a hug while showering her with kisses. She doesn’t, but she wants to.

Sana turns back to her work, trying her best to focus until she has to leave. When her alarm goes off, she packs up her stuff and happily walks up to the counter to get a refill. She smiles at Dahyun extra sweetly, but the girl avoids eye contact. She’s a little disappointed, but she already secured a date so she’s definitely not upset. Dahyun hands her the coffee and she thanks her, turning to leave. 

“Good luck at the meeting!” Dahyun suddenly says, and Sana is about to say thank you when she hears a quieter, “Sana.” Her heart almost beats out of her chest.

“Thank you, Dahyun.” She can feel the butterflies in her stomach as she opens the door to leave, never looking back. She feels like a schoolgirl with a crush.


End file.
